AFP

SHANGHAI AUSTRALIAN Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Saturday the controversial deployment of US Marines in his country had not provoked a strong response from Beijing.

The first batch of 2,500 US Marines to be deployed in Australia arrived in Darwin last month as Washington bolsters its presence in the strategically vital Asia-Pacific, to the irritation of China.

“It was a relatively muted response (from China),” Carr told reporters in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai, the first stop on an official visit.

“I would be surprised if China’s policy makers and strategic thinkers didn’t recognise the rotating Marine presence in northern Australia as a relatively modest development.” The American troops will be stationed in Australia on a six-month rotational basis, building to more than 2,000 by 2016-17.

China’s foreign ministry called for “peace and stability” in the region after the first group of 200 US Marines arrived in Australia in April.

But China’s defence ministry criticised the move as proof of a “Cold War mentality” and state media accused US President Barack Obama of using his diplomatic ambitions in Asia to detract from US economic woes.

Carr, who became foreign minister in March, also said he would seek to deepen economic integration with China on the six-day visit.

China is a major trading partner of Australia and a keen consumer of its resources, needed to keep the world’s second largest economy moving.

“Australia is a good site for Chinese direct investment and I want to seize the opportunities I’ve got here to remind the government,” he said.

He added that China’s interest in negotiating a free trade agreement with Australia had picked up. The two countries have been negotiating such an agreement for seven years.