When Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to a packed room at the East-West Center last week, he emphasized peaceful cooperation with China.

Another theme was the continuing American commitment to the “rebalance” or “Asian pivot” — the idea that the United States can perform the diplomatic equivalent of walking, chewing gum, and juggling at the same time.

Secretary Kerry made the case that the U.S. can deal with Israel and Palestine, Syria, ISIS, Russia, Ukraine and other global tensions without abandoning the Asia-Pacific region.

And then, in the latter part of his 50-minute address, he dropped in a dramatic, remarkable line that slipped below the media radar. He said that “the United States and Australia are today as close as nations can get.”

President Barack Obama practices passing a football with then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia in the Oval Office in 2011. Secretary of State John Kerry says relations between the countries are about as close as could be.

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

There’s no disagreement from Australia’s top representative in Hawaii.

“Secretary Kerry is dead right — and Hawaii is right at the center of that engagement,” says Scott Dewar, Australia’s consul general in Honolulu.

One of the most visible signs of that engagement is tourism. And while it can be tempting to read a bit too much into visitor arrival numbers, they do remain critical measures of Hawaii’s most important economic sector. And when it comes to Australia, the indications are strong.

According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, 143,742 Australians visited Hawaii in 2010. Last year, that number had more than doubled, leaping to 305,783.

With an average stay of about nine and a half days, the traveling Aussies tend to linger a bit longer and spend a bit more than the average tourist coming to Hawaii.

Visitor arrivals are important scorecards, but they’re also what economists refer to as lagging indicators — they comprise a view from the rearview mirror — showing what business has already happened, rather than looking forward through the windshield to see what’s ahead.

For that look ahead, the crucial factor for Hawaii is airlift. Visitor enthusiasm about coming to Hawaii can only be increased through the participation of major airlines. The Australia-Hawaii link is increasingly part of the expansionary dreams of airline executives.

Earlier this month, Qantas announced it will boost the frequency of its Sydney to Honolulu flights to four times a week, from three now, as of Dec. 20, and the airline says that during peak periods it will fly five times a week. And the aircraft used will be upgraded to the larger-capacity Airbus 330 from the older Boeing 767.

The deepening relationship goes beyond tourist numbers and food. As Consul General Dewar says, “The less visible side is government to government, especially with defense cooperation.”

The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Hawaiian Airlines Chief Executive Mark Dunkerley from the sidelines of the CAPA Australia Pacific Aviation summit earlier this month as saying “we are interested in further expansion in Australia.”

Hawaiian Airlines has been flying to Sydney for a decade and to Brisbane for nearly two years. Melbourne and Perth are candidates for future direct flights to Honolulu on Hawaiian.

Other signposts pointing to a convivial Australia-Hawaii relationship include the recent addition of a second Aussie-styled “Tucker and Bevvy” restaurant location in Honolulu.

And earlier this year, Australian television chef Bill Granger chose Waikiki as the location for his first American restaurant. The eatery, based on the famous Bills, in Sydney, has rated high on Yelp since it opened.

But the deepening relationship goes beyond tourist numbers and food. As Consul General Dewar says, “The less visible side is government to government, especially with defense cooperation.”

That’s not limited to the semi-annual Rim of the Pacific military exercises, known as RIMPAC. The deputy commanding general for operations of the U.S. Army in the Pacific is an Australian, Major General Richard Burr. So is the deputy director for intelligence for Southeast Asia Affairs at U.S. Pacific Command, Cameron Ashe. Pacific Command’s deputy director for planning and policy is Royal Australian Navy Commodore Ian Middleton.

All are based in Hawaii.

Part of that deployment of senior officers from Australia has to do with a broader effort to internationalize the brass in Hawaii’s military establishment, as the need for multilateral cooperation among allies increases.

But part of this also reflects a growing special relationship between the U.S. and Australia, especially in matters involving shared goals of Asia-Pacific security.

Those shared goals can also be seen on the ground in Australia.

At the time of the 2011 APEC meetings in Honolulu, President Barack Obama announced plans to rotate Marines through a base outside Darwin, in northern Australia. Their numbers have continued to build, rising to more than a thousand this year, with plans for an eventual tally of 2,500.

Plans are for air and naval cooperation to increase as well.

Through the end of next week, U.S. and Australian forces are taking part in the biennial “Pitch Black” exercises in Australia, along with a series of other countries.

Secretary Kerry spent time in Australia before his stop in Honolulu. He and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met their Australian counterparts, and produced a wide-ranging joint statement for their annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations. This six-page document reflects a variety of shared interests and cooperative approaches on topics from Asia-Pacific trade and security to elections in Fiji and Indonesia.

So the next time you hear a visiting accent from Down Under, understand the voices of tourism are important, but when it comes to Australia and Hawaii, they tell only part of the story.