{"id":15226,"date":"2014-08-13T12:15:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T02:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=15226"},"modified":"2014-08-14T09:32:42","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T23:32:42","slug":"close-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Close ties?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Niels Marquardt is quite correct to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/america-and-australia-economic-ties-as-strong-and-important-as-security-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\">stress the warm and close relationship<\/a> that exists between Australia and the US. We have no closer relationship. It stretches across all aspects of our engagement with the world. If, in some countries, our diplomatic interests are represented by the UK, that has as much to do with accidents of history than political realities of the present.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the picture Marquardt draws of Australia, while pretty and true, can\u2019t go unchallenged. Just as a portrait may not match the entire reality of the sitter, so his wishful snapshot doesn\u2019t accurately display where we may be in a decade, nor even where we are now.<\/p>\n<p>Take communications. Qantas may fly to only two destinations in China and flies to four in the US, but its offshoot Jetstar, adds another three further cities in the Middle Kingdom. The looming question over the American routes is, of course, how soon cuts and closures will come. There\u2019s certainly no question of adding capacity. And it\u2019s much the same with the other fields traversed by the CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce. The bonds with the US are tight and economic links strong and established. But the new linkages are in Asia.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In the nine years ending in 2012, 11% of our migrants (225, 657) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.immi.gov.au\/media\/publications\/statistics\/immigration-update\/nom-sept-2012.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">came from China<\/a>\u00a0(PDF). Fewer than 30,000 came from the US. Those facts can\u2019t be papered over by platitudes about us \u2018growing closer\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Marquardt admits as much with the statistics he chooses to present reinforcing his case. He segues casually from the bilateral Australia\u2013US trade treaty to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (which is, so far, just talk) before he provides numbers. Our number one trading partner is China\u2014the US is number three. Over the past five years trade with China has surged from $85,162 million to (currently) $150,919 m. Over the same period trade with the US has grown marginally \u2013 from $49,393 m to $54,714 m. Numbers don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n<p>Yes, Julie Bishop <em>did<\/em> state, earlier this year, that the US is \u2018Australia\u2019s most important economic partner\u2019. Nevertheless, the veracity of the statement all depends on how you measure the relationship. It\u2019s always possible to redefine your terms to get the result you want\u2014but at the cost of rendering what you\u2019re saying meaningless. The real measure of an easy and close relationship is one that doesn\u2019t need to brag.<\/p>\n<p><em>Nic Stuart is a columnist with the\u00a0<\/em>Canberra Times<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Niels Marquardt is quite correct to stress the warm and close relationship that exists between Australia and the US. We have no closer relationship. It stretches across all aspects of our engagement with the world. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,433,492,31],"class_list":["post-15226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-economics","tag-immigration","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Close ties? | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Close ties? | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Niels Marquardt is quite correct to stress the warm and close relationship that exists between Australia and the US. We have no closer relationship. It stretches across all aspects of our engagement with the world. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-13T02:15:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-13T23:32:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nic Stuart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nic Stuart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/\",\"name\":\"Close ties? | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-13T02:15:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-13T23:32:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/0271045a279688a3b03d5587d8f23880\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Close ties?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/0271045a279688a3b03d5587d8f23880\",\"name\":\"Nic Stuart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3902e2a4cb8f81f5f24c7e8befdf9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3902e2a4cb8f81f5f24c7e8befdf9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Nic Stuart\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/nic-stuart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Close ties? | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Close ties? | The Strategist","og_description":"Niels Marquardt is quite correct to stress the warm and close relationship that exists between Australia and the US. We have no closer relationship. It stretches across all aspects of our engagement with the world. ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2014-08-13T02:15:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-13T23:32:42+00:00","author":"Nic Stuart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nic Stuart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/","name":"Close ties? | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-08-13T02:15:32+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-13T23:32:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/0271045a279688a3b03d5587d8f23880"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/close-ties\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Close ties?"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/0271045a279688a3b03d5587d8f23880","name":"Nic Stuart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3902e2a4cb8f81f5f24c7e8befdf9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a3902e2a4cb8f81f5f24c7e8befdf9ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Nic Stuart"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/nic-stuart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15226"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15258,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226\/revisions\/15258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}