Prime Minister Defends Australian Missile Defense Policy

Australia has reaffirmed its intention to participate in U.S. missile defense efforts, as Prime Minister John Howard called the move a “logical way to go” after meeting today in Sydney with the top U.S. military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers (see GSN, Jan. 13).

“It seems to me a fairly commonsense proposition if Australia can have access to a system that defended missiles directed at Australia from arriving in Australia, then it’s something we ought to be part of,” Howard said.

“We would be foolish, in fact recklessly negligent, not to take advantage of the opportunity of acquiring that capacity,” he added.

Australia first announced its plan to cooperate with the United States last month (see GSN, Dec. 4, 2003), and the decision has drawn criticism from regional neighbors.

Howard, however, has brushed off those complaints.

“Just as we don’t agree with the United States on everything, we don’t agree with Indonesia and China on everything,” he said in a radio interview (Agence France-Presse/ChannelNewsAsia, Jan. 16).

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