United States-Australia relations Totally Explained

Everything about United States-australia Relations totally explained

United States-Australia relations refers to international relations between Australia and the United States of America. U.S.-Australian relations have been close since the Second World War. While Australia has traditionally been aligned with the Commonwealth of Nations, it has strengthened its relationship with the United States since 1942 as Britain's influence in Asia declined and the United States influence increased. At the governmental level, United-States-Australia relationships are formalised by the ANZUS treaty and Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. Moreover, the United States has had a considerable impact on Australian culture.
Both the United States and Australia share some common ancestry and history (see British Empire), having both been British colonies. Both countries had native peoples who were dispossessed of their land. Both have been part of the Western alliance of nations in various wars. There are numerous other similarities.

Military

In 1908, Prime Minister Alfred Deakin invited the Great White Fleet to visit Australia during its circumnavigation of the world. The fleet stopped in Sydney, Melbourne and Albany. Deakin, a strong advocate for an independent Australian Navy, used the visit to raise the publics enthusiasm about a new navy. The visit marked the first occasion that a non Royal Navy fleet had visited Australia waters. Many see the visit of the Great White Fleet as a major turning point in the creation of the Royal Australian Navy, as shortly after the visit Australia ordered its first modern warships, a purchase that angered the British Admiralty.
   In 1942 Australian Prime Minister John Curtin put U.S. General Douglas MacArthur in direct command of the Australian military, which numerically dominated MacArthur's forces at the time. MacArthur's headquarters were located in Brisbane until 1944 and Australian forces remained under MacArthur's overall command until the end of World War II. The U.S. Embassy opened in 1943.
   After the war, the American presence in the south-east Pacific increased immensely, notably in Japan and the Philippines. In view of the co-operation between the Allies during the war, the decreasing Australian and New Zealander reliance on the United Kingdom, and America's desire to cement this post-war order in the Pacific, the ANZUS Treaty was signed by Australia, New Zealand and the United States in 1951. This full three-way military alliance replaced the ANZAC Pact that had been in place between Australia and New Zealand since 1944. In 1984, New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange barred nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from entering NZ waters or from using NZ ports, eventually leading to New Zealand officially becoming a nuclear-free zone in 1987. New Zealand's refusal to allow the nuclear-armed USS Buchanan port access in 1985 eventually lead to the United States suspending its treaty obligations towards NZ in 1986. The alliance, which now only exists between Australia and the U.S. and between Australia and NZ, is Australia's only formal military alliance.
   Australia has been involved in most major American military endeavours since World War II including the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and both Iraq Wars—all without invocation of ANZUS. The alliance has only been invoked once, for the invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C..

Political

Since 1985, there have been annual ministerial consultations between the two countries, known as AUSMIN. The venue of the meeting alternates between the two countries. It is attended by senior government ministers such as the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australian Minister for Defence, US Secretary of Defense and US Secretary of State.

State visits

Several presidents of the United States have visited Australia while in office, and Australian Prime Ministers have visited the United States.

Australian tours by U.S. Presidents

The first Australian visit by a President was that of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 in the midst of the Vietnam war, to seek support for Australia's ongoing involvement in the war. Australia had previously sent advisers to Vietnam with the first combat troops going there in 1965. More recently, George W. Bush visited in 2003 and addressed a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament, again to acknowledge Australia's involvement in the U.S. led war on terror and troop commitments in Iraq.

Dates	President	Cities visited	Reason
20-23 October, 1966	Lyndon B. Johnson	Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Townsville	State visit; met with Governor-General Richard Casey and Prime Minister Harold Holt.
21-22 December, 1967	Lyndon B. Johnson	Canberra	Attended funeral of Prime Minister Harold Holt and conferred with other attending heads of state.
31 December, 1991 - 3 January, 1992	George H. W. Bush	Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne	Met with Prime Minister Paul Keating and senior Australian officials; addressed the Australian Parliament.
19-23 November, 1996	Bill Clinton	Sydney, Canberra, Port Douglas	State visit. Addressed joint meeting of Parliament and visited the Great Barrier Reef.
22 October, 2003	George W. Bush	Canberra	Met with Prime Minister John Howard and addressed Parliament.
4 September, 2007	George W. Bush	Sydney	Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Conference.

United States tours by Australian Prime Ministers

Dates	Prime Minister	Cities visited	Reason
17 April 1986
22-24 June, 1988	Bob Hawke	Washington, D.C.	met with President Reagan and other government officials.
7-15 July 2000	John Howard	Japan and USA
4-8 September, 2000	John Howard		Millennium Summit and Commonwealth High Level Review Group
8-14 June, 2001	John Howard		State Visit. Was to address a joint sitting of the US Congress on 12 September, but this was cancelled due to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
28 January-8 February, 2002	John Howard
1-10 May, 2005	John Howard	New York City, Washington, D.C.	State visit; Addressed the 60th anniversary session of the United Nations in New York City
8-14 May, 2006	John Howard

Trade

Trade between the United States and Australia is strong, as evidenced by the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement. The United States is Australia’s third largest export market and its largest source of imports. The United States is also the largest investor in Australia.
Australia and the United States also provide significant competition for each other in several third-party exports such as wheat, uranium and wool and, more recently, in the information technology sector.

Further Information

Get more info on 'United States-australia Relations'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://united_states-australia_relations.totallyexplained.com">United States-Australia relations Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.