Japan, Australia and US urge constructive China

By Sue Pleming and Michelle Nichols

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The United States, Japan and Australia
said on Saturday that China had a constructive role to play in
the Asia-Pacific and encouraged the emerging superpower to
“pull its weight” as a regional and global player.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Japanese Foreign
Minister Taro Aso and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer also called on North Korea to return to six-party
nuclear talks and voiced grave concerns about Iran’s nuclear
program.

But China appeared to be the key focus for the inaugural
Trilateral Security Dialogue, held at a naval base in Sydney,
with Rice expressing concern ahead of the meeting over the rise
of the Asian giant and in particular its military build-up.

“We welcomed China’s constructive engagement in the region
and concurred on the value of enhanced cooperation with other
parties such as ASEAN and the Republic of (South) Korea,” the
three ministers said in a statement after the talks.

But Downer said it was important that Beijing did not feel
Japan, Australia and the United States were “ganging up” on it,
and the three nations just wanted to make sure the economic and
political growth of China worked to benefit the region.

“We want China to pull its weight as a good regional
participant, an example of that is on North Korea, ” Downer
told reporters after the meeting.

“It’s not for China to feel we’re ganging up on China …
We certainly don’t have a policy of … trying to constrain
China or working with other countries against Chinese interests
or anything like that.”

“DIFFERENT LANGUAGE”

Rice, winding up a three-day visit to Australia, had been
voicing concern that Beijing would become a “negative force”
unless it was more open about its military build-up.

The 2.3-million-strong People’s Liberation Army is already
the world’s largest standing force, and Beijing says its
official defense budget will rise 14.7 percent in 2006.

Rice denied that Washington had a China “containment
policy,” but her language underscored differences with Canberra
which sees Beijing more as an economic opportunity than a
military threat.

“I think we all pretty much agree, even if we use different
language, that we want to have a constructive relationship with
China,” Downer said. “We wish China to participate fully in the
affairs of the region and the international community.”

Some analysts disagreed.

“Australians are concerned that the United States is
looking at this as another cold war,” said Dana Dillon, an Asia
expert with the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Tokyo also has strained ties with Beijing, with disputes
stemming mainly from Japan’s 1931-45 occupation of much of
China.

Aso wrote in an article in the Wall Street Journal this
week that China’s return to center-stage in East Asia was
welcome as long as it evolved to a liberal democracy.

Like Rice, he urged Beijing to fully disclose its defense
spending which he said “remained opaque.”

NORTH KOREA, IRAN

Downer said China had been doing a good job encouraging
North Korea to discuss with the United States, South Korea,
Japan, China and Russia calls for it to renounce its nuclear
ambitions.

Rice, Downer and Aso urged Pyongyang to return “immediately
and unconditionally” to the talks, hanging fire since late
2005.

They also discussed the need for the UN Security Council to
convince Iran to suspend all its enrichment-related activities,
fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and
return to negotiations on its nuclear programs.

Washington says Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons but
Tehran says it is just developing nuclear energy.

Rice, Aso and Downer stressed the importance of
strengthening ties with India, and said New Delhi’s decision to
place its civilian nuclear programs under global safeguards
would reinforce the international non-proliferation regime.

After the meeting, Rice flew back to Washington following a
nine-day trip that also took her to Chile for the inauguration
of that country’s first woman president and to Indonesia.