Military exchanges with Australia and New Zealand are progressing and have helped improve overall relations

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is committed to implementing the nation's foreign policy, and developing military relations with foreign powers and they are non-aligned, non-confrontational and not directed against any third party.

This was the key tenet of a white paper of defense titled "China's National Defense in 2008."

The PLA is also engaged in military exchanges and cooperation with their overseas counterparts, and it strives to create a military security environment based on mutual trust and cooperation.

This is not just a policy declaration, but also the specific embodiment of the willingness and good wishes of the Chinese armed forces to develop all-round military relations with different countries.

Following China's reform and opening up, the PLA has also been integrating closely with world military powers with growing confidence. China has carried out very active military diplomacy in recent years, showing positive development of contacts and cooperation at multiple levels and in various fields.

China's military relations with Australia and New Zealand have been stable, with frequent reciprocal visits between defense and military leaders, maturing strategic defense consultation mechanisms and expanding pragmatic academic exchanges.

Since the 1990s, ties between the Chinese and Australian militaries have progressed quickly. Dating back to 1997, China and Australia have held a total of 12 defense strategic consultations, one of the smoothest defense exchange mechanisms between Chinese and foreign armed forces.

In recent years, the two sides carried out various exchanges in terms of combat, training, military education, logistics, peacemaking, army aviation, and services communication. The warships of both nations have routinely engaged in exchange visits, and educational and academic exchanges are also active.

Though the relationship between the Chinese and New Zealand militaries began quite recently, it has been growing speedily since 1997 when New Zealand's Secretary of Defense made the first ever visit to China. Both sides agreed during that visit to further strengthen the high-level strategic dialogue mechanism.

Since then, the two sides have conducted pragmatic exchanges and cooperation in various fields, including inter-visits of naval warship formations and military school students, and academic exchanges.

In October 2007, naval forces from China, Australia and New Zealand completed a joint maritime search and rescue exercise. In April 2010, forces from the three sides, for the first time, held a seminar on humanitarian relief and disaster alleviation, which further deepened China-Australia and China-New Zealand military exchange and cooperation.

The development of China-Australia military ties has not altogether been a happy story, and has been dogged by some discord and quite a few issues.

Despite relatively mature bilateral relations and military relations, it isn't surprising to see problems emerging in bilateral ties. While facing difficulty, both sides should engage in active dialogue and do more to overcome the difficulties rather than resorting to suspicion.

Fortunately, the three sides are all fully aware of the significance of developing bilateral relations with each other and could deal with mutual military ties from the strategic perspective of international relations development.

China-Australia and China-New Zealand trade relations are strongly complementary and have great room for growth. China has become Australia's largest trade partner, largest import source and largest export market in 2009.

China is also New Zealand's second largest trade partner and third largest export market. Though affected by the financial crisis, trade volume between China and the two partners in 2009 saw positive growth.

Robust trade relations could act as the most enduring driving force to promote China-Australia and China-New Zealand relations, including bilateral military ties.

In the post-financial crisis era, countries have more integrated interests and are facing increasingly complicated security risks, and no single country or single armed force can set the pace for ever.

Developed countries and emerging developing economies should respect each other, listen attentively to each other, and have enough patience to understand the diversity of the world, tolerating differences in different political systems, social structures and cultural heritages, so as to achieve common security and common prosperity.

Global security threats require joint efforts. The rise of power in the Asia-Pacific region provides better prospect for different countries to conduct broad military exchanges and cooperate, and China's military ties with Australia and New Zealand will play a more significant role in promoting the construction of a harmonious Asia, as well as a harmonious world.

The author is a researcher at the PLA National Defense University

(China Daily 05/13/2010 page8)