Former prime minister Paul Keating slams Defence Minister Richard Marles for ‘careless betrayal' over US-China war comments
Former prime minister Paul Keating has launched a scathing attack on Defence Minister Richard Marles, accusing him of surrendering Australia's foreign policy independence.
Mr Marles declared at a summit on Monday that Australia could play a role in any future war between the United States and China.
In a blistering critique published in The Australian, Mr Keating described Mr Marles' comments as a 'careless betrayal of the country's policy agency'.
He also said Mr Marles' stance on Australian involvement in a US-China conflict would 'go down as a dark moment in Australia's history'.
'China's singular crime is to have built an economy larger than the United States,' Mr Keating said.
'This is the affront which the United States cannot bear… Now, the US is running about trying to sweep gullible allies into its declining and failing pitch.
'Yet, it believes there is always a mug who will buy its venal view of affairs. And in Australia, the United States is not disappointed.'
During The Australian's Defending Australia summit on Monday, the Defence Minister said Australia would play a key role in a war between China and the US.
He also expressed a belief that Australia would not be under threat of invasion, but that 'sea lines of communication' may be compromised in any conflict.
'Australia's geography today is more relevant to great power contest than it has been at any point since the end of the Second World War,' he said.
Asked about Australia's potential to play a role in a potential war on Thursday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not rule it out.
'The focus of everything we do is to prevent conflict,' she told reporters at a press conference at Parliament House.
'The focus of everything that we do, both in hard deterrence, also in reassurance, and the work we do, and I lead in the region, is to prevent conflict and to preserve peace.'
Ms Wong also did not rule out the possibility of Australian involvement in the Middle East conflict.
'We're not a central player in the Middle East,' she said in response to questions about moving defence assets to the Middle East.
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