US or China? Clinton says Australia doesn't need to choose

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton assured Australians that they don’t have to choose between the United States, their most important security ally, and China, their primary trading partner, as she ended a visit to the important Pacific ally on Thursday.

Clinton and Defence Secretary Leon Panetta were attending an annual security summit with their Australian counterparts, Foreign Minister Bob Carr and Defence Minister Stephen Smith, aimed at deepening military links as the United States shifts its might to the Asia-Pacific.

She used her final speech in Australia in the city of Adelaide, the heartland of Australia’s military manufacturing industry, to reject criticism that Australia’s enhanced ties with the United States would come at the cost of its burgeoning relationship with China.

“I know there are some who present a false choice: that Australia needs to choose between its long-standing ties to the United States and its emerging links with China,” Clinton said.

“Well, that kind of zero-sum thinking only leads to negative-sum results,” she said.

Clinton’s comments followed a speech on Wednesday by former prime minister Paul Keating, a hero of the ruling Labor Party, in which he said Australia’s “former sphere of influence is diminishing”.

Keating blamed a lack of foreign policy independence, arguing that Australia had “rolled backed into an easy accommodation with the foreign policy objectives of the United States”.