First off Australia and the US have been allies for so long - long before anyone here on this forum was born. The US-Aussie alliance is rock-solid.
Of course we do. Who told you that we're unaware of Australian participation in a security pact with USA? That's what most of us are talking about here: US is pivotal to Australian existence.
The Aussies are surrounded by ocean and its an ocean that is increasingly being militarized by China, India, indonesia, Malaysia, etc and other countries in the Gulf. It would be absolutely foolhardy for the Aussies to not keep an eye on all the major players in region, and build a strong navy that can counter any power-plays by emerging nations.
Without your help, no matter what they do, they cannot match the levels of PLAN or IN. Our yardstick of expansion is China and a point of trouble is Pakistan. What is their yardstick? The thing is, they are just bored of being considered unimportant militarily and simply want some attention. Not to mention create fear mongering so that you lot give them state of the art weapons.
Australia should be grateful that they're in a place where they can put 100% of their work and money to be a peaceful developed state unlike us or Israelis, both of whom are surrounded by enemies, in our case who happen to be a nuclear armed terrorist factory and another an expansionist empire.
Indonesian and Malaysian navies are even tinier than their own. What are they going to do to them? And why? Also Chinese happen to be Australia's biggest benefactors.
Now some may ask - why the sudden interest in building up the navy. Well before they could always depend on the US to safe-guard their interests but with US budget deficits being what they are - it is prudent of the Aussies to build up their own capacity.
The real concern is China, not so much India.
Aussies saved themselves from recession due to Chinese trading with them. A third of their population is Chinese origin or mixed with Australian. Chinese are the biggest minority in Australia. If that way one has to think, China has already crept into Australia long back. Their forces should emphasize on dealing with piracy and counter-terrorism by sea if at all should they need to militarily think. Even if they hike their defense budge sizably, PLAN if it comes to war (without you), would gobble the RAN in hours.
As the saying goes when it comes to international relations - hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.
I certainly agree on this one.
They have by and large been an exemplary nation in the conduct of foreign policy and being a responsible nation. Australia is not involved in any major power-play or power projection games.
That is because there's nothing much they need to do in terms of involving themselves in tricky situations. Their geographic location isolating them from the rest of the world, makes them a country without any disputes, rich economy and resources ensures that all want to be friendly to them.
What irresponsibility or risk taking do you fancy for Australians under such ideal conditions?
