PARTNERSHIP without PARTNERS

Where is the much-vaunted democracy in the collective West when it is only one (the White House) that decides for the rest?

 

By Sidney Hey

It's impossible to ignore how the Australian navy has been very busy of late. You may not see it if you walk along Sydney's waterfront but if you go out on the open sea and casually cruise along the coast you will see how the Eastern Fleet naval base HMAS Kuttabul is a hive of ships coming and going, some of them British, nuclear powered “Vanguard” class.

In Australia we know that when a cup of tea is broken at 10 Downing Street Canberra will bend over to mop the floor. My point is that our politicians are always dancing to the tune of the music being played in London and that is rather disappointing.

It is true that for many, even within the Big Island, the most danced to music for decades has been American music but it is also true, that we have not yet cast off those old moorings that right here in New South Wales where the Cook louts on Her Majesty's orders created the largest overseas prison in the world.

But that is colonial history. Now, given what is happening in the French dominions, perhaps the British should not be so careless. Over here, devotion to the British crown seems to have ended with the death of Queen Elizabeth. What strikes me about this is where the country is going in pursuing the Atlanticist agenda in the Indo-Pacific aimed at screwing mainland China. And no doubt the most dangerous part of that is NATO's activation of atomic warfare protocols. What the hell are they planning?  Once again, under the argument of "defending Taiwan", we will have to put ourselves under the command of the Yankees and that is when this kind of madness begins to be explained. I get the idea that in Washington they take the Australians as their British extension in the South Pacific and it is possible that they believe that our government will jump like Rishi Sunak and all his predecessors have been doing.

Considering the way the media around here deals with international realities and especially with what is happening in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, anyone who is not an Australian would be more likely to think they are reading editorials written in Washington or London. But there's a problem, it's Australians here who should be making their own decisions.

Washington has realised that despite its constant efforts, it has not succeeded in harvesting as many friends in the Indo-Pacific as it would like to have, meaning "useful idiots" of course. The fact is that the states of the region know that friendship with the US brings with it requirements and commitments aimed at annoying mainland China by putting them in the middle. In this sense, it is understandable why the efforts of CIA chief Williams Burns and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin in Cambodia have failed.

But in Canberra, politicians should ask themselves: Are we better off getting entangled in the White House's power games with mainland China, will we sacrifice our trade relations with Beijing for the intrigues woven in Washington? This is a question PM Albanese and Co. should consider with the US moves in the region.

The government should also consider the subtle but already warned escalation that has begun to be seen in both Russian strategic forces and NATO's European bases (in Germany and Italy) through preparations and testing for nuclear operations.

Washington finds Cambodia's long-standing good relations with China unacceptable. But what displeases US officials most is the defence cooperation, especially in the naval area between the two nations, which hampers the movements of the Western fleet in the China Sea.

The answer is more than clear, but no one will tell the king that he is naked, so everyone will be smiling and applauding.

As always, Washington lends a hand and cuts off your arm. Nothing it grants comes for free and that is something Washington reminds "Pnhom Penh" of with its position in ASEAN.

Washington definitely wants to control the foreign policy of each of these states, especially Singapore, the most important country in the region to participate in the deployment of Atlanticist plans in the South Sea, even more so than Australia. Still, Washington would need more direct and committed political meddling from Canberra in the face of these problems since, friends beware, NATO's (i.e. Washington's) main objective is not in Ukraine but in the Pacific.

It seems that the Americans are not satisfied with AUKUS and QUAD as their tactical toys to intimidate the Chinese and would need greater investment and involvement of the Big Island in the area, and who better than Australia.

According to reliable sources, Washington expects London to take strategic control of Indo-Pacific operations and to deploy them by involving the Aussies even more in what could end in a nuclear catastrophe.