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| Image: Flickr User - U.S. Department of State |
By Prashanth Parameswaran
Former defense official says calls for more active alliance management.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States and Australia should boost defense ties as Canberra struggles with balancing its foreign relations amid China’s rise, a former Australian defense official told a forum in Washington, D.C. Tuesday.
Australia is struggling with how to balance its growing economic relationship with China with its more comprehensive alliance with the United States, Peter Jennings, the former deputy secretary for strategy at Australia’s defense department said at a conference at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
As the public debate continues about how Australia should manage its ties with China and the United States, Canberra and Washington should move to more actively work their alliance, particularly be speeding up defense cooperation.
“I think the U.S.-Australia alliance is still remarkably strong, but the debate around the challenges of balancing economic and security priorities is still very much alive,” he argued.
In order to strengthen the alliance, Jennings, now the executive director of the Australian Strategic Police Institute, a think tank, suggested that Washington and Canberra do five things.
Read the full story at The Diplomat