{"id":76668,"date":"2022-11-22T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T19:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=76668"},"modified":"2022-11-21T16:19:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T05:19:47","slug":"australias-push-for-closer-ties-with-asean-is-good-strategy-but-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australias-push-for-closer-ties-with-asean-is-good-strategy-but-complicated\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s push for closer ties with ASEAN is good strategy but complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The headline news for Australia out of last week\u2019s G20 summit in Bali was the meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The prospect of repairing relations between Australia and China is an overdue development and in the interests of both countries.<\/p>\n

But while China tends to dominate the foreign policy debate in Australia and elsewhere, there\u2019s more to our engagement with Asia than getting on with Beijing. The Albanese\u2013Xi meeting appropriately took place in the midst of three of the biggest leaders\u2019 summits on the international calendar\u2014which, as it happens, were all held in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

If Australia\u2019s relationship with China is to have a sustainable recovery, it will be built in large part on demonstrating a strong diplomatic presence in ASEAN, which straddles the region of greatest strategic importance to us. ASEAN also has a record of convening \u2018inclusive\u2019 meetings that bring all sides, not just the like-minded, into one room.<\/p>\n

Sure, the Albanese government has promised a continued commitment to the Quad\u2014and to AUKUS\u2014but talk of Australian and ASEAN futures being \u2018tied together\u2019, and the recent appointment<\/a> of a high-profile special envoy for Southeast Asia, suggest some fresh strategic thinking. We cannot assume, however, that moving closer to ASEAN will be uncomplicated.<\/p>\n

Australia has lost ground with Southeast Asia. At a recent seminar commemorating our leadership in bringing a form of peace to Cambodia 30 years ago, discussants doubted whether Australia could play such a regional role today. The strategic context has changed; our great ally, America no longer possesses unrivalled power and China is becoming recognised across Southeast Asia as the regional leader.<\/p>\n

A second challenge we face is that Australia\u2013ASEAN relativities have changed dramatically. Australia has continued to grow, but much of Southeast Asia has developed more quickly. For Australia, ASEAN is second only to China as a trading partner. But we are less important to Southeast Asian countries, accounting for well under 3% of their trade.<\/p>\n

Our economy is also now smaller than Southeast Asia\u2019s. Three decades ago, Australia\u2019s GDP was larger than the combined GDP of the ASEAN countries. Today, their GDP is far greater than ours\u2014more than double by some measures\u2014and also larger than the GDP of India, a country we often call a potential great power. ASEAN has also become China\u2019s number one trade partner.<\/p>\n

Economic capacity plays into defence capability. Australia easily outspent ASEAN three decades ago, but today ASEAN spending on defence is some 60% greater. With benchmarking against US forces, and recent combat experience, Australia still has a capability edge in key areas, but our lead is now less conspicuous.<\/p>\n

A third challenge in strengthening ASEAN relations is that we now face far more competition for Southeast Asian attention. China isn\u2019t the only nation to have risen meteorically as an economic partner. South Korea, once a country of little economic significance to Southeast Asia, is now well over twice as important as Australia as an ASEAN trading partner\u2014and a serious investor. Australia\u2014unlike Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as Korea\u2014isn\u2019t listed among the main investors in ASEAN.<\/p>\n

The findings of the 2022 ISEAS \u2013 Yusof Ishak Institute survey<\/a> of the region\u2019s opinion leaders are sobering. Australia does well enough as a place for university education\u2014equal to Japan and well ahead of Korea\u2014and as a provider of Covid-19 support. But we now rank low against other ASEAN partner states in terms of economic and security influence\u2014as well as in providing leadership in \u2018maintaining the rules-based order\u2019 and \u2018championing global free trade\u2019.<\/p>\n

Three or four decades ago, apart from the Cambodia initiative, Australia was spearheading the Cairns Group of Fair Trading Nations and was central in the creation of APEC.<\/p>\n

A fourth challenge relates to contrasts in political culture. In the decades following the Pacific War, Australia was the local representative of the dominant global ideology, liberal democracy. Today\u2014with the relative decline of US influence\u2014we must take distinctive Asian perspectives far more seriously.<\/p>\n

In foreign policy, Southeast Asians tend to be uncomfortable with military alliances. Rather than automatically balancing against a rising power, they prefer working through regional organisations that are \u2018inclusive\u2019\u2014seeking to \u2018socialise\u2019 rising states, such as China. They are wary, too, about interference in the internal affairs of another country. China\u2019s ideology is seen as China\u2019s business\u2014and Vietnam\u2019s ideology hasn\u2019t prevented it from becoming a leading ASEAN state.<\/p>\n

Sometimes to Australia\u2019s frustration, the unity of ASEAN is viewed as more important than decisive action\u2014for instance, in pursuing political or even human rights issues. Although Southeast Asians are political gradualists, in economic development they favour dynamism\u2014and increasingly lack respect for Australia in this area.<\/p>\n

Noting Australia\u2019s regional relations, an influential Singapore commentator warns that, with American decline, Australia may become isolated\u2014a type of \u2018Cuba in Asia\u2019. The answer is not to become \u2018Southeast Asian\u2019, but it is unwise to express disdain for Southeast Asian preferences, as some of our leading commentators have done.<\/p>\n

A fifth challenge to an ASEAN priority is that the wider Australian community connects only weakly with these countries. Amazingly, there\u2019s little stress on the languages and societies of Australia\u2019s neighbours in our university and school system. The Lowy poll on \u2018Australian attitudes\u2019<\/a> suggests a lack not only of knowledge, but also of interest and warmth. True, we take an increasingly positive view of Japan, but the one distinct theme in our international outlook is dedication to the US alliance. Half the Australian population hasn\u2019t even caught up with Indonesia\u2019s \u2018remarkable transition to democracy\u2019\u2014a development which PM John Howard highlighted time and again.<\/p>\n

Over two centuries, Australians have engaged in the great project of building a liberal democracy on this continent. With some important exceptions, we have been less creative in our international relations. Southeast Asians and others suspect that Australia has not yet come to terms with its geographic setting. To do so may require some reimagining of Australia\u2019s identity, as well as foreign policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The headline news for Australia out of last week\u2019s G20 summit in Bali was the meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The prospect of repairing relations between Australia and China …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775,"featured_media":76669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[189,2212,285,365],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia\u2019s push for closer ties with ASEAN is good strategy but complicated | 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\/australias-push-for-closer-ties-with-asean-is-good-strategy-but-complicated\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia\u2019s push for closer ties with ASEAN is good strategy but complicated | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The headline news for Australia out of last week\u2019s G20 summit in Bali was the meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. 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