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AUSTRALIA/US: Rudd’s Salute to Bush Exposes Sensibilities

Analysis by Stephen de Tarczynski

MELBOURNE, Apr 8 2008 (IPS) - While Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has laughed off a playful salute to U.S. President George W. Bush during last week’s NATO summit as “just a joke”, the imagery lends credence to accusations that Australia is the United States’ “deputy sheriff” in the region.

The image itself was powerful. Here was Australia’s leader, attending a major NATO conference on the future of the war in Afghanistan where he would call for a greater commitment from those NATO countries perceived as not pulling their weight.

With the camera focusing on Rudd, the Prime Minister is seen standing by himself in a crowded room in Bucharest, rubbing his hands together prior to spying Bush across the room. Stern-faced, Rudd’s right hand is then raised to his forehead in salute, before the PM breaks into a broad smile. Following the gesture, the camera tracks Rudd as he makes his way across the room, the two leaders shaking hands upon meeting.

So, what to make of the salute? An innocuous piece of playful theatrics or a display of subservience from the leader of one sovereign nation to that of another?

When questioned later at a press conference, Rudd laughed off the salute as “just a joke”. However unconvincing Rudd’s laughter was – which, it must be said, appeared somewhat contrived – it is reasonable to conclude that he was indeed merely horsing around.

“I’m not about to behave like some sort of robotic automaton in dealing with people, whether they are heads of government, heads of state or anyone else,” explained Rudd, adding that he has a “slightly quirky sense of humour”.

Quirky sense of humour or not, the salute was quickly pounced upon by his political opponents here in Australia. The federal opposition leader Brendan Nelson told reporters that it was “conduct unbecoming an Australian Prime Minister”.

Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens, was more forthright in his criticism. It was a “huge mistake by Kevin Rudd. It belittles Australia and many Australians are simply not going to like it,” said Brown.

The connotation of the visual display of deference is that Australia remains the U.S.’ “deputy sheriff” – dutifully doing the superpower’s bidding in the Asia-Pacific – a term levelled at Australia’s previous prime minister, John Howard, by former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad.

While this labelling of Howard may at least be incomplete – Howard appeared to hold a similar world view to those at the top of the Bush administration – it would be unreasonable to attach such a tag to Rudd.

Since winning office in last November’s election, Rudd has steered a far more independent foreign policy line than the one chosen by his predecessor. While Howard committed Australia to war in both Afghanistan and Iraq, Rudd has committed to a June withdrawal of Australian combat troops from the debacle in Iraq.

One of Rudd’s first actions as prime minister was to set in motion Australia’s ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, thereby leaving the U.S. out in the cold, so to speak, as the only industrialised nation not to ratify the treaty.

He has also spoken of his desire to take on a mediating role between China and the west, positioning Australia between the two camps. This was in evidence last week when he addressed the Brookings Institution in Washington during the U.S. leg of his current 17-day world tour and called for the active engagement of China.

“In short, we look to China to make a strong contribution to strengthening the global and regional rules-based order,” said Rudd.

While the Mandarin-speaking Rudd does not shy away from embracing the country that has become Australia’s largest trading partner – even calling for China to be included in a regional security pact – he is also willing to address its shortcomings.

“Human rights remain a real problem as demonstrated by the recent violence in Tibet – problems that require dialogue and restraint,” he told the Brookings Institution.

Further comments by Rudd – who is visiting China on the final leg of his world tour – on “human rights abuses in Tibet” have elicited formal complaints by China in Canberra and at Australia’s embassy in Beijing.

But although Rudd has Australia’s foreign policy to a more independent tact, the U.S. still looms large in the prime minister’s thinking. In Washington, Rudd spoke of the common values and strategic interests which the two nations share. He described the 1951 ANZUS Treaty – which binds Australia and New Zealand militarily to the U.S. – as “the bedrock of Australia’s strategic policy.”

And while Australia under Rudd still looks to the U.S. as its main military partner, any signals emanating from high-ranking Australian officials can still be perceived as a demonstration of Australian subservience to the United States – even if it is in jest – thereby awakening Australian sensibilities regarding the lop-sided alliance.

Australia’s close relationship with the U.S. reaches back to the Second World War, when almost one million American service personnel passed through Australia from the end of 1941, lending rise to Australian complaints of U.S. soldiers being “over-sexed, over-paid and over here.”

Since then, the influence of the U.S. has grown considerably, while the influence of Australia’s former colonial power, Britain, has waned. The influence is probably most visible in popular culture, which has been embraced by many Australians.

However, the number of Australians who reject this and other aspects of U.S. influence is also significant. There was passionate opposition to Australia’s decision under the previous government to commit forces to the U.S.-led invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, while many regarded Howard’s close relationship with Bush as a further sign of Australian subservience.

For Rudd – although appearing sincere in wanting to posit Australia in the middle zone between the west and China – acting in a way that befits Australia’s prime minister as the leader of an independent, sovereign nation, rather than as underling of the U.S., is far more beneficial. Imagery is known to invert jokes.