Washington and Canberra have signed a 25-year agreement on Aug. 12 to allow American airmen and marines to train in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory, according to China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times.
David Johnston, the Australian minister of defense, said that about 1,200 US marines and air force personnel were already rotating into Darwin after President Barack Obama declared Australia part of his Asia Pivot strategy. The new agreement signed on Aug. 12 allows the United States to increase the number of its troops in Australia to 2,500. Chuck Hagel, the US secretary of defense, said the agreement underscored the "rebalancing" of the US Asia-Pacific strategy.
"We are not going anywhere," Hagel said. "Our partnerships are here, our treaty obligations are here and are important to us." Hagel said the US has 200 ships and more than 360,000 personnel in the Pacific region.
Read the full story at Want China Times