Fed: US navy secretary says China needs to be transparent

AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2007
Fed: US navy secretary says China needs to be transparent

By Max Blenkin, Defence Correspondent

CANBERRA, Aug 15 AAP - Visiting US Navy Secretary Donald C Winter says China lacks
transparency about its military objectives, but involving it in multinational exercises
could break down barriers to understanding.

"The more we understand each other, the more we understand what is normal and proper
and professional conduct, the better to be able to avoid any unintended consequences,"

Dr Winter told reporters today.

He said during the Cold War the US understood just who the enemy was, who had to be
worried about, what they had and where they would come from.

Dr Winter said any multilateral exercises including China could help improve understanding.

"We are in a very different environment right now and we find ourselves engaging with
many adversaries all over the world," he said.

They could be anyone from pirates operating in the Straits of Malacca or off the Somali
coast, non-state actors, questionable regimes and potential future peer competitors, he
said.

"It is necessary for us and all other nations that share common objects to be able
to prepare for that uncertainty in the future and be able to provide both deterrence and
dissuasion against activities that would threaten the peace in the region as well as mechanisms
of responding should that be needed," he said.

Dr Winter said China needed to be more transparent about its military activities whereas
the US had been open about its plans to redeploy naval forces from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.

China needed to do the same concerning its own forces.

"We continue to take a look at China. We try to understand what the Chinese intent
is in many aspects," he said.

"I know the concept, the question if you will, of transparency comes up all the time
and we are trying to understand exactly not only what it is what they are doing but why
they are doing it.

"We would like to understand what their view is, we would like to understand what their
plans are and we would like to understand what their objectives are."

Dr Winter, in Australia for talks with Australian defence officials and industry, said
the US had made a decision in the Quadrennial Review to shift carriers and submarines
to provide a 60-40 split between the Pacific and Atlantic.

He said that was a recognition of two factors - potential security challenges in the
Pacific region as well as the vast area of the Pacific requiring some additional assets.

"We are in the process of going through that reallocation activity as we speak," he said.

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KEYWORD: CHINA US

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