United States Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday expressed concerns about China’s military build-up and also questioned whether North Korea would follow through on its commitments in a recent nuclear deal.
In a speech in Sydney, Cheney also stressed the importance of US forces remaining in Iraq to stop ”jihadists” gaining a base from which to spread violence across the Middle East.
Antiwar protests have marked Cheney’s visit to Sydney, with demonstrators scuffling with police.
”The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan or Iraq or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option that we simply cannot indulge,” Cheney said in his speech.
”If our coalition withdrew before Iraqis could defend themselves, radical factions would battle for dominance of the country,” he told the Australian-American Leadership dialogue.
Cheney arrived in Australia after talks in Tokyo with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in which China’s military rise and its growing clout were high on the agenda.
In Sydney, Cheney praised China’s role in six-party talks that led to an agreement under which North Korea agreed to disable its main plutonium-producing nuclear complex in return for heavy fuel oil.
But Cheney raised concerns over China’s military build-up.
”Last month’s anti-satellite tests, China’s continued fast-paced military build up, are less constructive and are not consistent with China’s stated goal of a ‘peaceful rise’.”
Cheney echoed Bush in saying the North Korea deal was a step toward disarmament but also raised concern about whether Pyongyang would follow through.
”In light of North Korea’s missile test last July, it’s nuclear test in October and its record of proliferation and human rights abuses, the regime in Pyongyang has much to prove, yet this agreement represents the first hopeful step towards a better future for the North Korean people,” he said.
Cheney is known for his hawkish views and the speech was his first open acknowledgement of caution over the Korea deal.
”On North Korea, I thought he was properly sceptical,” said US analyst Michael Fullilove, from Austalia’s foreign affairs think tank The Lowy Institute.
Analyst Ron Huisken, from the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said Cheney’s China comments may have been aimed at showing Japan it was alert to concerns about China’s buildup.
”I don’t recall Cheney ever making a major statement raising a dark cloud or a hesitation of a query on China,” he said.
Iraq protests
During his Asian trip, Cheney has sought to assure Japan and Australia — two of Washington’s closest allies — that the US commitment to the region would stay strong despite Iraq.
Japan’s Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma caused a stir before Cheney’s Tokyo visit by saying the Iraq war was a mistake.
About 50 protesters near Cheney’s Sydney hotel chanted ”Chain Up Cheney” on Friday and urged an end to the Iraq war. One woman danced in a skeleton suit, with an American flag over her shoulders, and dragging two bloodied animal carcasses.
Mirroring the political damage Iraq caused for Bush at home, the war has become a growing problem for Howard’s conservative government, which has slumped in opinion polls ahead of elections due in the second half of 2007. About 67% of Australians either want Howard to set a withdrawal date from Iraq or pull Australian forces out immediately.
Cheney met with Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd, who has gained traction in polls in part because of his antiwar stance.
Australia was one of the first nations to commit to the Iraq war, and although it has only 520 combat troops on the ground it has been one of the most vocal supporters of the US-led war.
”Prime Minister Howard and the nation he serves has never wavered on the war on terror,” Cheney said, adding the Australia-US alliance was never stronger.
Howard, who was in Washington for talks with Bush on September 11 2001, again said he would stand by Washington. ”America is going through a very difficult time. Whatever reservations you might have, that’s the time not to turn your back on them, but to stick to them,” he said.
Cheney meets Howard on Saturday before leaving Australia on Sunday. – Reuters