China, Australia revive defense talks

Australia must tread carefully in its relations with China

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- China and Australia have agreed to revive an annual defense talks which fell into disuse two years ago.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced the resumption of the dialogue Wednesday evening following a three-hour meeting and dinner with China's Premier Zhu Rongi.

It is understood the talks were abandoned by China following a trip by Australia's Trade Minister Mark Vaile to Taiwan in 2000.

The two nations have also fallen out over Australia's strong support for the U.S. administration's plans to develop a missile defense shield system.

China says the shield is designed to negate the effectiveness of its own nuclear small nuclear arsenal.

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Speaking to reporters, Howard denied suggestions the revived defense talks were the result of a changed Australian stance on Taiwan.

"The Chinese premier's agreement to the reactivation of the security dialogue was in no way induced by any statements, undertakings, remarks or reference to Australia's relationship with Taiwan," Howard said.

A spokesman for the prime minister said there had been no agreement on when exactly the security talks would resume.

Australia must walk a fine line in its relations with China given its close ties to the United States and Japan.

Trade agenda

During a recent visit to Australia by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, both leaders gave their strong support to a U.S. proposed trilateral defense dialogue involving the U.S., Japan and Australia.

China opposes that idea because it is wary of any military moves by Japan, which it sees as too closely representing U.S. interests.

Howard said at the time China had no reason to fear the trilateral proposal as it was: "Merely a natural expression of the fact that we have a number of security interests in common in the region. "

Japan and the U.S. are also Australia's two biggest trading partners, with China third.

But China is a fast-growing export market for Australian products and one of Howard's missions on this trip has been to push the merits of Australian-supplied gas for the massive Chinese energy market.