Indeed, the announcement of the base at Darwin has a military as well as a strategic logic. China’s increasing capabilities, particularly in the field of ballistic missiles and potentially in the field of stealth strike aircraft, have placed current U.S. bases in Japan and South Korea in the radius of attack. And so while the shift of resources to Australia could be seen in this context as a retreat, it also represents a more realistic distribution of capabilities, given current Chinese military strengths. Potentially, China could misread this step as a U.S. decision to give the PRC’s ambitions a bit of space. However, it appears that the Chinese have thus far read the move as aggressive rather than accommodating.
See also this interview with Paul Keating (via Sam Roggeveen), and this White House background briefing on the Australia and ASEAN trip.
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. On a less happy note, I think that everyone at the blog joins in offering heartfelt condolences to James Joyner upon the unexpected passing of his wife, Kimberley.
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