http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/diplomats-dump-on-nearest-not-dearest-in-talks-with-us-20101214-18wx2.html
Diplomats dump on nearest, not dearest in talks with US Philip Dorling December 15, 2010 Leaked ... Australia's views of its neighbours. AUSTRALIA'S top diplomats consider our neighbourhood deeply troubled, with China's leadership ''nervous, paranoid and uncertain'' but "running rings'' around a diplomatically ineffective Japan. Thailand is unstable, the Philippines is a "basket case" and East Timor a "burden". The candid judgments of some of Australia's most senior and experienced diplomats are contained in the US record of secret political-military talks held between senior Australian and US officials in Canberra in October 2008. The US record has been leaked to WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald. Discussions between the US assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, Mark Kimmitt, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade deputy secretary David Ritchie featured frank descriptions by Mr Ritchie of Australia's ''troubled neighbourhood . including an increase in illegal immigration from Indonesia . continuing political instability in Thailand; the basket case of the Philippines; the continuing burden of providing security and development assistance to East Timor; problems of bad governance in many of the Pacific Island states''. The Department of Foreign Affairs' first assistant secretary for north Asia, Graham Fletcher, provided a broad political overview of China. "The elite, led by Hu Jintao, likely would retain control until 2012, when Hu would turn over the reins to one of his hand-picked successors,'' Mr Fletcher forecast. "While China might look impressive externally, its internal politics were characterised by nervousness, paranoia and uncertainty. Nonetheless there were no major challenges to the ruling elite in the near term.'' The department's first assistant secretary for south-east Asia, Peter Woolcott, described the political situation in many countries in Australia's neighbourhood as ''messy'', and cited "significant problems in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Burma''. "The situation in Indonesia - Australia's most important regional partner - was 'as good as it gets,' '' Mr Woolcott said. "[President Susilo Bambang] Yudhoyono . whom Australia wanted to see re-elected, had provided first-class co-operation on counterterrorism.'' Mr Woolcott described China's diplomatic efforts in south-east Asia as ''impressive'', adding that "while most countries wanted a US presence as a hedge, they were comfortable with China's approach''. "Japan's presence, by contrast, hardly registered, in part because it declined to invest political resources, such as visits by senior officials,'' Mr Woolcott said. At this point Mr Fletcher interjected that the Chinese were ''running rings around Japan'' in south-east Asia. Mr Ritchie said Japan was hampered by the legacy of World War II, "but also seemed unable to follow through on its initiatives; it was a major economic investor in the region but could not translate its investment into influence''. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
