Melbourne, Mar 18: A strong pro-China lobby in Canberra is&13;reportedly working hard to thwart a quadrilateral security dialogue&13;involving the US, Japan, Australia and India.
&13;
The possibility of four powerful economies coming together has got&13;impetus from the signing of the Australia-Japan joint declaration on&13;security in Tokyo on March 13.
&13;
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his Japanese counterpart&13;Shinzo Abe inked the historic agreement which would facilitate close&13;cooperation across the security front between the two of the strongest&13;Pacific region powers.
&13;
The international politics experts augur this declaration would&13;pave way for the formation of the aforementioned 'axis of democracies'&13;with much larger global dimensions.
&13;
But some Australian commentators have also ruled out chances of&13;any such quadrilateral arrangement as the Chinese lobby down under&13;would see it as another attempt to encircle the emerging superpower.
&13;
It has been widely reported in the regional media that the US has&13;proposed widening the trilateral security dialogue between Japan, the&13;US and Australia to include the South Asian democracy.
&13;
The opposition to such an alliance would be instantaneous and&13;ferocious. It is not only the Chinese apparatchik who would most likely&13;register displeasure, but also the strong pro-China lobby in Australia.
&13;
The opposition leader Kevin Rudd has, in a what could be long term&13;foreign policy embarrassment for him, already opposed Australia-Japan&13;security declaration.
&13;
Any suggestion of annoying China further, experts opine, would be&13;simply unthinkable for the emerging Australian politics pin-up boy.
&13;
Alan Dupont, director of Sydney University's Centre for&13;International Security Studies, has also debunked the recent Australian&13;parleys with Japan labeling it an attempt to contain China.
&13;
"It would be extremely unwise, in my view, to be drawn into a&13;quadrilateral arrangement which would only reinforce Chinese fears of&13;strategic encirclement," Dr Dupont told The Australian newspaper.
&13;
"What would be the purpose of formalising such an alliance? The&13;only reason would be to constrain China's rising power. It smacks too&13;much like Cold War containment," the Australian academic added.
&13;
Some observers also feel Australia's effort to impede the progress&13;of an alliance of the world's sole superpower, the second largest&13;economy in the world (Japan), and the second most populous nation on&13;earth may lead to the exclusion of the small Pacific country.
&13;
"There must always be a difference in the political relationship&13;we have with a democracy as opposed to a dictatorship. An arrangement&13;like this with India is gold for Australia. If we don't join it, it&13;will happen without us" The Australian foreign affairs expert Greg&13;Sheridan wrote.
&13;
UNI
&13;
The possibility of four powerful economies coming together has got&13;impetus from the signing of the Australia-Japan joint declaration on&13;security in Tokyo on March 13.
&13;
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his Japanese counterpart&13;Shinzo Abe inked the historic agreement which would facilitate close&13;cooperation across the security front between the two of the strongest&13;Pacific region powers.
&13;
The international politics experts augur this declaration would&13;pave way for the formation of the aforementioned 'axis of democracies'&13;with much larger global dimensions.
&13;
But some Australian commentators have also ruled out chances of&13;any such quadrilateral arrangement as the Chinese lobby down under&13;would see it as another attempt to encircle the emerging superpower.
&13;
It has been widely reported in the regional media that the US has&13;proposed widening the trilateral security dialogue between Japan, the&13;US and Australia to include the South Asian democracy.
&13;
The opposition to such an alliance would be instantaneous and&13;ferocious. It is not only the Chinese apparatchik who would most likely&13;register displeasure, but also the strong pro-China lobby in Australia.
&13;
The opposition leader Kevin Rudd has, in a what could be long term&13;foreign policy embarrassment for him, already opposed Australia-Japan&13;security declaration.
&13;
Any suggestion of annoying China further, experts opine, would be&13;simply unthinkable for the emerging Australian politics pin-up boy.
&13;
Alan Dupont, director of Sydney University's Centre for&13;International Security Studies, has also debunked the recent Australian&13;parleys with Japan labeling it an attempt to contain China.
&13;
"It would be extremely unwise, in my view, to be drawn into a&13;quadrilateral arrangement which would only reinforce Chinese fears of&13;strategic encirclement," Dr Dupont told The Australian newspaper.
&13;
"What would be the purpose of formalising such an alliance? The&13;only reason would be to constrain China's rising power. It smacks too&13;much like Cold War containment," the Australian academic added.
&13;
Some observers also feel Australia's effort to impede the progress&13;of an alliance of the world's sole superpower, the second largest&13;economy in the world (Japan), and the second most populous nation on&13;earth may lead to the exclusion of the small Pacific country.
&13;
"There must always be a difference in the political relationship&13;we have with a democracy as opposed to a dictatorship. An arrangement&13;like this with India is gold for Australia. If we don't join it, it&13;will happen without us" The Australian foreign affairs expert Greg&13;Sheridan wrote.
&13;
UNI
Oneindia Login