Sydney, April 1 (IANS) Australia's former ambassador to the US has said the nation's recently released defence strategy paper would need to be re-written to reflect more on self-reliance should US republican front-runner Donald Trump be elected the next president.
Former ambassador to the US Kim Beazley, who finished his posting in Washington in December 2015, wrote in an opinion editorial that should Donald Trump win the US presidency, Australia could no longer rely on the US forward policy, the media reported on Friday.
Donald Trump, though he has not yet secured the US republican nomination for president, is the likely candidate to contest the November US president election against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
"If Trump happens, the (Defence White Paper) 2016 will need a rewrite early next year and the strategic sectors will look very different," Beazley said.
"We would still be deeply embedded in what might be seen as the American deep state -- the intelligence community, the military and the arms industry.
"However, a lot more intellectual muscle would need to be put on the priority attached to defending our approaches."
Beazley added that the US Asian pivot would also become instantly complicated given Trump's "long-standing hostility to features of American relations with Asia".
"The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be killed immediately; the Chinese relationship would go from competitive to adversarial," Beazley said.
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