Australia's relationship with Asia
Australia's relationship with Asia is quite extensive, quite full of life, and ever growing.
There are so many exports and imports going on and Asia is so full of life. It is such a busy place. It looks like the day never ends! I don't know much about the relationship with Asia. Except that it is close to Australia as you see in the image below. Asia is made up of many small parts and its population is always expanding. For a while in the past, Australia and parts of Asia definitely did not get along. There is much evidence of that from World War 1 & 2. When I went researching Asia's relationship with us, that is all I could find. I couldn't find anything else. So from my knowledge of what my Uni lecturer taught me and what my Dad's told me, and what little I managed to find on the internet, I can narrow Australia's relationship with Asia to 'It is vast, it is wonderful to see, it is breath-taking the way we have all developed...' I hope that what I found on a few internet resources helps you understand a little better about Australia's relationship with Asia.
"The emerging alliance between China and Australia is one we must keep our eye on. It is exemplified by Australia’s agreement to sell uranium for power generation to China – an autocratic state still modernizing its nuclear arsenal and maintaining an opaque nuclear position. Australia, as noted a critical U.S. ally, has overlooked concerns that the uranium deal could result in a diversion of more resources for China’s nuclear weapons program. We should be concerned because, for Australia, commercial benefits clearly took precedence over regional security concerns.
"China will acquire 20,000 tons per year of uranium from Australia beginning in 2010. Japan is rather wary of this deal and recognizes the security threat that China poses and the skyrocketing budget of the Chinese military. Beijing has thus far only accepted mostly symbolic nuclear inspections.
"Another issue is that Australian uranium is set for expansive extraction. Uranium export projects in the country have much room to increase. Australia does not even have a nuclear power plant of its own, but controls 40% of known global reserves and only meets about 20% of current global demand. As global demand threatens to outstrip supply, uranium prices soared from 2003 to 2010. Of 18 other commodities, only sugar rose higher. Further, uranium supplies from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons are diminishing, and a number of nations have plans for new nuclear reactors.
"Australia’s two-way trade with China was $76.2 billion in 2009, up over 15% from a year earlier, and iron ore makes up half the exports. Chinese investment, particularly in minerals and energy, also continues to increase."(Clements, nd)(Grossman, 2013)
References:
Clements, J. (nd). SE Asia/Australia. Retrieved from Jude Clements' Energy Blog: http://www.judeclemente.com/seasia_australia/
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