The symbolism is striking. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta will meet their Australian counterparts in Perth,Australia's booming Indian Ocean city.
The West Australian setting is apt not only because it is the home state of Defence Minister Stephen Smith, who will join Foreign Minister Bob Carr in the Australia-US ministerial consultations, or AUSMIN.
It's also because these talks are the perfect chance to adjust the Australia-US alliance for a horizon wider than the Asian Century -- the era of the Indo-Pacific.
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