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China's People's Liberation Army has asked to operate under Australian command in the largest international exercises that it has ever joined, smoothing the path for Tony Abbott's most challenging international excursion as Prime Minister.
The breakthrough in military relations follows close co-operation in the search for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which is believed to have disappeared off the coast of Perth with 153 Chinese nationals on board.
And it demonstrates that Beijing has shelved, for now, its frustration at Canberra's deepening military ties with Washington and the fury it vented at Canberra's support for Tokyo late last year.
It is believed to be the first time the PLA would operate under Western command in a military exercise, a senior military officer has told Fairfax.
Leaders in Canberra and Washington are coming to the view that China's muscular advances into its maritime periphery cannot be resolved, or reversed, but only managed. They are particularly concerned that lines of emergency communication and co-operation are far less developed with China than they were with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
Western military leaders welcomed a PLA decision last year to join humanitarian rescue components of the US-led ''Rim of the Pacific'' maritime exercises, which will see the navies of more than 20 nations converge around Hawaii for warfare drills in July.
And they are likely to welcome the PLA's request - which Fairfax understands was communicated through defence channels last week - to operate in those exercises under the direct command of the Australian navy.
"China has a central role to play in contributing to regional stability," Australia's Defence Minster, David Johnston, told Fairfax, while declining to directly comment on the most recent Chinese overture, which is yet to be fully processed through political channels. US ambassador to Canberra John Berry told Fairfax that the US supported Australian co-operation with China generally because it did not view its own relationship with China as a "zero-sum" contest.
He pointed to the PLA's imminent participation at RIMPAC as a stand-out example of "efforts to foster co-operation and better understanding between our militaries".
"We seek to work with China on areas of common interest and concern but are prepared to speak out when we have differences," Mr Berry said.
Mr Abbott's tour of Australia's three most important export partners involves a delicate itinerary. On Monday, he is due at an important defence co-operation agreement with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before meeting China's President Xi Jinping for dinner the following evening and then departing for South Korea.
In the background, China and Japan have been clashing over disputed territories and accusing each other of failing to learn lessons from past world wars, while Korea struggles to avoid being crushed in the middle. The China-Japan dispute has generated 15 months of tense military encounters in the East China Sea.
Late last year, Mr Abbott broke from precedent to side publicly with Japan by naming it as Australia's "best friend in Asia" and also an "ally". Chinese disquiet broke into open fury when the Abbott government publicly protested at China's surprise declaration of a so-called Air Defence Identification Zone over disputed airspace.
And then the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs' north Asia division, Peter Rowe, said he had ''never in 30 years encountered such rudeness" as the public treatment of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Chinese diplomats further castigated Canberra for failing to protest against Mr Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December, which they say was symbolic of resurgent Japanese "militarism".
Read more: China to take our orders in war games
The breakthrough in military relations follows close co-operation in the search for the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which is believed to have disappeared off the coast of Perth with 153 Chinese nationals on board.
And it demonstrates that Beijing has shelved, for now, its frustration at Canberra's deepening military ties with Washington and the fury it vented at Canberra's support for Tokyo late last year.
It is believed to be the first time the PLA would operate under Western command in a military exercise, a senior military officer has told Fairfax.
Leaders in Canberra and Washington are coming to the view that China's muscular advances into its maritime periphery cannot be resolved, or reversed, but only managed. They are particularly concerned that lines of emergency communication and co-operation are far less developed with China than they were with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
Western military leaders welcomed a PLA decision last year to join humanitarian rescue components of the US-led ''Rim of the Pacific'' maritime exercises, which will see the navies of more than 20 nations converge around Hawaii for warfare drills in July.
And they are likely to welcome the PLA's request - which Fairfax understands was communicated through defence channels last week - to operate in those exercises under the direct command of the Australian navy.
"China has a central role to play in contributing to regional stability," Australia's Defence Minster, David Johnston, told Fairfax, while declining to directly comment on the most recent Chinese overture, which is yet to be fully processed through political channels. US ambassador to Canberra John Berry told Fairfax that the US supported Australian co-operation with China generally because it did not view its own relationship with China as a "zero-sum" contest.
He pointed to the PLA's imminent participation at RIMPAC as a stand-out example of "efforts to foster co-operation and better understanding between our militaries".
"We seek to work with China on areas of common interest and concern but are prepared to speak out when we have differences," Mr Berry said.
Mr Abbott's tour of Australia's three most important export partners involves a delicate itinerary. On Monday, he is due at an important defence co-operation agreement with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before meeting China's President Xi Jinping for dinner the following evening and then departing for South Korea.
In the background, China and Japan have been clashing over disputed territories and accusing each other of failing to learn lessons from past world wars, while Korea struggles to avoid being crushed in the middle. The China-Japan dispute has generated 15 months of tense military encounters in the East China Sea.
Late last year, Mr Abbott broke from precedent to side publicly with Japan by naming it as Australia's "best friend in Asia" and also an "ally". Chinese disquiet broke into open fury when the Abbott government publicly protested at China's surprise declaration of a so-called Air Defence Identification Zone over disputed airspace.
And then the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs' north Asia division, Peter Rowe, said he had ''never in 30 years encountered such rudeness" as the public treatment of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Chinese diplomats further castigated Canberra for failing to protest against Mr Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December, which they say was symbolic of resurgent Japanese "militarism".
Read more: China to take our orders in war games
