Battling the spin on Australia’s Asian exercising
As Tony Abbott wings his way to Northeast Asia, up to 130 ADF personnel are already there, participating in a major US-led amphibious exercise off the South Korean coastline. That number comes from a mid-March Stars and Stripes piece that referred to the Exercise SsangYong (double dragon) as ‘unprecedented’ and as ‘the peninsula’s largest joint amphibious landing drill.’ That’s no small thing for Australia to be part of.
But it’s a more recent Wall Street Journal article that has put a specific and challenging spin on Australia’s involvement (which it must be said is dwarfed by the nearly 10,000 US and several thousand Korean personnel). Depicting this large exercise as an attempt to reassure Washington’s allies about America’s commitment as the regional distribution of power is changing, Yuka Hayashi also had this to say: ‘The U.S. has also expanded joint-exercise programs with Japan as well as Australia, regional allies that are building their own amphibious forces to counter Beijing’s.’ Read more