Fed: US alliance is a kind of insurance policy, says Hill

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2004
Fed: US alliance is a kind of insurance policy, says Hill

CANBERRA, April 11 AAP - There was nothing wrong with regarding Australia's alliance
with the United States as an insurance policy, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today.

Opposition Leader Mark Latham last week accused the Howard government of turning its
back on Asia in favour of an "insurance policy" alliance with the US, with the premium
paid in Australian military commitments to US wars like Vietnam and Iraq.

Mr Latham said a Labor government would maintain the US alliance as an equal partnership
and would no longer be America's deputy sheriff.

Senator Hill today said the current treaty did not distinguish between the countries
in terms of one being more equal than another.

"But the reality is that we pay about $A14.5 billion for defence, the Americans pay
the equivalent of about $A540 billion," Senator Hill told the Nine Network's Sunday program.

"It is an alliance between a superpower and one that's not (a superpower).

"In some ways, it is an insurance policy. It is our ultimate insurance, the fact that
we are in alliance with the one global superpower. I can't see why one should apologise
for that."

He said the coalition government saw the alliance much more positively than Mr Latham
and regarded it as an important strategic asset.

"We believe that the benefits we can get out of that strategic alliance really depend
on what we're prepared to put into it," Senator Hill said.

"The point that I'm making is, there's got to be a cost, a price if we're going to
be treated seriously within that alliance.

"We're not embarrassed by that, we see it as an asset, we want to build upon it and
strengthen it for the future."

AAP mfh/cdh/tnf

KEYWORD: LABOR FOREIGN

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