Self-interest trumps friendship when it comes to supporting foreign allies

By Jack Waterford
Updated April 23 2018 - 10:44pm, first published November 14 2014 - 3:48pm

The Russian Navy has paid Australia a big compliment by menacing the east of our continent with a cruiser, a destroyer, a petrol tanker and a tug boat - about as much as our own not-so-formidable fleet could manage to defeat in an afternoon. But those with a sense of history would not be greatly worried. True, Brisbane, yet again, might have to be dispensed with. But Sydney Harbour and Port Phillip Bay still bristle with 19th century cannon emplaced to protect our important cities from Russian invasion. And, mercifully, our national capital is not at Delegate - within shelling distance of the cruiser if it hadheavy guns, which it hasn't -but well inland.

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