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Japan, Australia and US urge constructive China

Posted on: Saturday, 18 March 2006, 01:39 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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