Hillary Clinton affirms the Australia-United States alliance: "HILLARY CLINTON has strongly affirmed the Australia-US alliance as "the core partnership", relegating China to a lower status despite its extraordinary growth.
The US Secretary of State said that while Australia and the US shared core values, China was not yet a responsible power and faced an unstable future.
"China has a long way to go" to show it could be a "responsible stakeholder" in the region, she said in an exclusive interview with the Herald.
Advertisement: Story continues below The US and Australia agreed yesterday to work together to increase the American military presence in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region, as part of the annual AUSMIN ministerial talks.
Mrs Clinton said that in recent years "we know there was a feeling here in the region that the US was abdicating its presence and leadership".
She said the US was now strengthening its existing alliances and creating better relations with "burgeoning" powers such as Indonesia and Vietnam: "It's a full court press," she said.
"
