{"id":37771,"date":"2018-03-13T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=37771"},"modified":"2018-03-08T10:25:55","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T23:25:55","slug":"southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/","title":{"rendered":"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning &#038; mateship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-37772 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>ASEAN comes to Sydney this week. The harbour city hosts Southeast Asia as Malcolm Turnbull does summitry with ASEAN\u2019s leaders.<\/p>\n<p>Just back from the Washington DC celebration of 100 years of US\u2013Australia mateship, the prime minister will preside over a different set of discussions about Oz mateship with Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n<p>The leaders\u2019 meeting on the weekend (17\u201318 March) is the first ASEAN summit on Australian soil; it follows from the launch of this biennial event in Laos in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>As in Vientiane, the public face will be all smiles and interlinked hands. At the photo-op level, the summit acts as semaphore\u2014the meeting is the message. Sydney has lots of meetings to add layers of meaning to the message: a deeper and richer Oz\u2013ASEAN mateship for the Asian century.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au\/asean-australia-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ASEAN\u2013Australia week<\/a> features academic, educational, sporting and cultural events to \u2018highlight the depth and diversity of links between Australia and Southeast Asia, and showcase Australian institutions\u2019 engagement with ASEAN countries\u2019. Sitting high up the mountain, close to the leaders, there\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au\/special-summit\/counter-terrorism-conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Counter-Terrorism Conference<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/aseanaustralia.pmc.gov.au\/special-summit\/business-summit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Business Summit<\/a> (with both a CEO forum and an SME conference).<\/p>\n<p>For a typically authoritative discussion of the meanings to be drawn from the meetings, see Dr Frank Frost\u2019s parliamentary library paper on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aph.gov.au\/About_Parliament\/Parliamentary_Departments\/Parliamentary_Library\/pubs\/rp\/rp1718\/ASEANSummit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issues and implications of the summit<\/a>. He concludes by identifying these major factors in Australia\u2019s future relations with ASEAN:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ASEAN\u2019s progress towards its declared goals for economic integration and security cooperation\u2014the Community project\u2014will be crucial.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The increase in great power tensions and decline in strategic trust between China and the US will \u2018increase pressures on ASEAN and reduce its capacity to continue to be a viable diplomatic actor in East Asia\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether ASEAN\u2019s efforts at multilateral dialogues, centred round the East Asia Summit, can build security in East Asia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The character and evolution of Australia\u2019s institutional relationship with ASEAN.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The health and viability of Australia\u2019s bilateral relationship with Indonesia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My view of the future is that Australia should aspire to more than mateship\u2014we should seek membership. My ASPI paper\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/report\/australia-asean-community-partner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Australia as an ASEAN Community partner<\/em><\/a> discusses how and why Australia should aim for a form of ASEAN membership\/partnership by 2024, the 50th anniversary of Australia becoming the first ASEAN dialogue nation.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to that mateship-to-membership idea, Dr Huong Le Thu comments that Oz perspectives on ASEAN have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australias-ever-changing-perspectives-asean-time-get-right\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fluctuated from fearful to fascinated<\/a>, along with periods of neglect and the odd blind spot depending on Canberra\u2019s political mood:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Australia\u2019s varying attitudes towards ASEAN has resembled a drawing class exercise on getting perspective right. Australia has been outside, in front of, behind, beside, overlooking, far away, close up and, one day, may even be inside ASEAN. Let\u2019s hope that its enthusiasm doesn\u2019t burn out after the summit, and that Canberra\u2019s current fascination isn\u2019t just a passing phase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Enthusiasms may, indeed, wane. Necessity is a more constant spur. Australia and ASEAN meet at a time when \u2018big and often disconcerting geopolitical shifts have been occurring in the region, most of them happening faster and going further than almost any of us would have believed possible\u2019. The quote is from Gareth Evans, meditating on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gevans.org\/speeches\/Speech644.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Asian geopolitics in transition<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Evans lauds ASEAN as \u2018one of the world\u2019s great conflict prevention success stories\u2019 playing an important \u2018strategic convenor\u2019 role, but he worries that the association\u2019s coherence and credibility is deteriorating. China presses. ASEAN\u2019s \u2018brand\u2019 is tarnished by the retreat from democracy and rule of law by some of its members.<\/p>\n<p>Time for Australia to step up, not step back. Tough times sort out your best mates.<\/p>\n<p>Gareth Evans thinks the Sydney summit is the moment to start exploring some form of Australian membership of ASEAN:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If ASEAN could better harness its own collective middle-power energy and capacity, and work more closely with countries like Australia, it could be a more influential and effective regional security player than it now is, in particular pushing back in the South China Sea against China\u2019s increasingly assertive encroachment: a united front of middle powers might be more effective in resisting this than relying on the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The mateship message needs to become a mutual musing about membership. The strategic dimension is what Australia, as a fellow middle power, can bring to ASEAN\u2019s efforts as a middle-power grouping seeking to shape Asia\u2019s norms and strategic system. Economically, Australia stands to benefit mightily from an ASEAN Community able to deliver a middle-class future to its people and push beyond the middle income trap.<\/p>\n<p>The meaning of the Sydney picture of ASEAN leaders linking hands with Australia\u2019s prime minister must be more than photo-op symbolism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASEAN comes to Sydney this week. The harbour city hosts Southeast Asia as Malcolm Turnbull does summitry with ASEAN\u2019s leaders. Just back from the Washington DC celebration of 100 years of US\u2013Australia mateship, the prime &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":37772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[189,285],"class_list":["post-37771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asean","tag-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning &amp; mateship | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning &amp; mateship | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ASEAN comes to Sydney this week. The harbour city hosts Southeast Asia as Malcolm Turnbull does summitry with ASEAN\u2019s leaders. Just back from the Washington DC celebration of 100 years of US\u2013Australia mateship, the prime ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-12T19:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-07T23:25:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Graeme Dobell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Graeme Dobell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":360},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/\",\"name\":\"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning & mateship | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-12T19:00:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-07T23:25:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning &#038; mateship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f\",\"name\":\"Graeme Dobell\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Graeme Dobell\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/graeme-dobell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning & mateship | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning & mateship | The Strategist","og_description":"ASEAN comes to Sydney this week. The harbour city hosts Southeast Asia as Malcolm Turnbull does summitry with ASEAN\u2019s leaders. Just back from the Washington DC celebration of 100 years of US\u2013Australia mateship, the prime ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2018-03-12T19:00:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-07T23:25:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Graeme Dobell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Graeme Dobell","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI&#039;s analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/asean_leaders-pose_1180x600-e1520464642278.jpg","width":640,"height":360},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/","name":"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning & mateship | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-03-12T19:00:55+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-07T23:25:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/southeast-asia-comes-sydney-meeting-message-meaning-mateship\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Southeast Asia comes to Sydney: meeting, message, meaning &#038; mateship"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/ed3342cd61abc65c1532f3cc46bdf96f","name":"Graeme Dobell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dff56734d4df784248f63058b7b6900a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Graeme Dobell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/graeme-dobell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37774,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37771\/revisions\/37774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}