Second, and more than inter-operability and joint readiness with US forces, Australia needs to ensure that there is strong and broad support by key Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and even Vietnam, in addition to Indonesia for a robust and reinvigorated
ANZUS alliance.
Bush jointly invoked the
ANZUS Treaty for the first time on September 14, 2001.
It was the occasion for the conclusion of the US alliance with the Philippines and
ANZUS, but this is about as far as it can go.
But even as these plans were being implemented, a crisis in the western Pacific precipitated a new wartime alliance with America and, in due course, the
ANZUS treaty.
forces in the Korean war, Vietnam (for over a decade), the first Gulf War and several international peace-keeping missions,
ANZUS had never formally been pressed into geopolitical service across its five decade long history.
Trade had become a wedge issue between Australia and the United States, and by deftly manipulating Australian media perceptions of China's increasing stake in Australia's economy, Beijing began to create fissures in the
ANZUS treaty.
A recent survey shows that 72 percent of Australians say that the
ANZUS alliance is either very important or fairly important for Australia's security, and only 7 percent rate it as not at all important.
In Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government would consult with the US, as required by the 54-year-old
ANZUS treaty, if a Chinese attack on Taiwan triggered an American military response.
When the US developed the 1951
ANZUS pact with Australia and New Zealand, although some British cabinet members disliked formalising the US as those Commonwealth countries' principal ally, Attlee ensured that this did not jeopardise Anglo-American relations.
One example concerns the prime minister's use of the
ANZUS treaty as the basis of the operation.
Esta situacion se mantiene en nuestros dias (y se refuerza, como lo detalla Rosas, desde los atentados terroristas de septiembre de 2001), lo cual se puede corroborar analizando el Tratado de Seguridad Regional entre Washington, Canberra y (hasta 1986) Wellington, el
ANZUS.
The contribution announced by Howard is larger than an initial commitment made last month, after the government invoked Article Four of Australia's 50-year-old
ANZUS military treaty with the United States.
