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Howard's global way

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With national elections looming, voters Down Under are balancing the divergent views of the Howard government's backing of its traditional support for US interests and the federal opposition's calls for a renewed emphasis on Asia

On September 11, 2001, Australia's prime minister was preparing to address the US Congress. Instead, he found himself in a Washington bunker with the new US ambassador to Australia, Tom Schieffer. That terrorism experience marked John Howard and Australia. An empathy based on realism now underpins Australia's relationship with its closest ally.

But what does such a powerful US relationship mean for Australia's Asian engagement? As Labor, under opposition leader Mark Latham, seeks to cast the Howard government as at best indifferent to Asia and at worst America's lap-dog, Mr Howard has struck back with a strident defence of its US relationship and of Australia's global role in fighting terrorism and in promoting democracy.

Mr Howard and his Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, reject suggestions that Australia's American relationship is at the expense of the Asian.

Mr Howard said: 'There is nothing incompatible between a close intimate relationship between Australia and the US and the simultaneous development of a strong relationship between our nation and the people of China.'

There was no evidence of a choice between Asia or the US when, last October, US and Chinese presidents George W. Bush and Hu Jintao addressed the Australian Parliament on successive days. At the time, Australia and China agreed on a framework to investigate the feasibility of a free trade agreement. And in February, Australia and the US signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Australia already has FTAs with Singapore and Thailand - part of what trade minister Mark Vaile called 'an ambitious new agenda of trade and economic linkages with Asia'.

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