Address by the Hon Alexander Downer, MP, Minister for Foreign
Affairs, to the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA),
Chatham House, London, 5 February 1997
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 2330 CANBERRA TIME
Introduction: Australia's Foreign Policy Priorities
The Australian Government sees Australia in the 21st Century as a
cooperative, economically competitive and secure nation, fully
engaged with the East Asian region, while maintaining and
strengthening important links with countries beyond the region.
The Government has been working determinedly since its election in
March 1996 - with a good measure of success I might add - to make
that vision a practical reality in our foreign policy priorities and
initiatives.
Australia's highest foreign policy priority is closer engagement with
Asia. But an Asia first policy does not mean Asia only. On the
contrary, Australia, like Europe, knows that it is not enough to
focus on our own region alone - we realise that our economic
interests and our security can be tied up with events well beyond our
immediate region.
Australia's relations with Europe are longstanding and include some
of Australia's most important economic and political interests. Our
ties also cover a wide and richly diverse range of cultural and
people-to-people links.
So, just as Australia would urge Europe not to be narrowly
Euro-centric, the Australian Government will not make the mistake of
being exclusively concerned with our immediate region.
Australia's relationship with Europe contributes a great deal to
Australia's engagement with its Asia Pacific neighbours in the same
way that our links with Asian countries add value to our relations
with Europe.
The touchstone of the Australian Government's approach to its
relationships with key partners in both Asia and Europe is a spirit
of initiative and cooperativeness, and a commitment to achieving
practical results.
With this in mind I would today like to set out four important
aspects of Australia's foreign policy. They are
. a commitment to strengthening Australia's engagement in the Asia
Pacific region;
. a determination to enhance Australia's security, especially in the
context of developments in the Asia Pacific;
. an undertaking to strengthen Australia's broader, global links in a
more productive way, especially in Europe; and
. an insistence on a humane and principled approach to regional and
global challenges.
PART ONE: AUSTRALIA IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION
The Australian Government's approach of making closer engagement with
the region our highest foreign policy priority is unsurprising and
indeed is nothing new. In the post-World War 2 era, Australian
Governments from both sides of Australian politics have acknowledged
the centrality of Asia to Australia's national interests.
The Asia Pacific region is the vital sphere of Australia's economic
and strategic interests.
Almost two thirds of Australia's exports are to APEC countries and a
growing percentage of these are manufactured products and skilled
services.
Over half of Australia's total foreign direct investment goes to APEC
countries.
Eight of Australia's top ten trading partners are now located in the
Asia Pacific region.
Dramatic economic and political change throughout East Asia over the
past ten to fifteen years have made strengthened Australian
engagement with Asia even more imperative. Put simply, Asia is on the
move and it is moving forward at a pace and with a force that is
unparalleled in recent history.
The defining dynamic in the region continues to be strong economic
growth.
World Bank predictions have East Asia growing at over 7 per cent a
year to the year 2004. That's two and half times faster than the rest
of the world.
Even if the maturing economies of Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore slow
down somewhat, the huge potential in economies like China, Indonesia
and India leaves plenty of fuel for sustained high-speed regional
growth.
By 2020, four of the world's ten largest economies will be in Asia -
Japan, China, Korea and India. Indonesia will be near the top of the
next ten, which will also include Thailand and Australia.
Over the same period of time, Asia's share of world Gross Domestic
Product will increase - probably to about 35 per cent, compared with
around 28 per cent now. Even more than now, East Asia will be a key
locomotive of the world economy.
For Australian producers, and for producers in the United Kingdom and
Europe, the opportunities presented by the region's sustained growth
and its rapid increase in wealth are immense. But there are also
major challenges associated with the new dynamics of Asia, and
Australia is working closely with its partners in the region to meet
them.
Sustained growth in East Asia, and the opportunities that it gives
rise to, will only be possible so long as the barriers to the
movement of goods, capital and ideas continue to fall and so long as
governments continue on the path of reform and deregulation.
It is the liberalisation of trade and investment that provides the
key to creating the regional and global conditions for growth. In the
Asia Pacific, the current favourable outlook for growth simply will
not be realised unless the process of economic liberalisation
continues.
The Australian Government is giving substance to its commitment to
engage more closely with Asia through its pursuit of an ambitious
trade liberalisation agenda, most particularly through the APEC
process.
Last year, the Australian Government put in a significant effort, in
cooperation with its APEC partners, to ensure that the task of
implementing APEC's trade liberalisation agenda got off to a positive
start.
We believe that this does indeed constitute a useful beginning. APEC
economies have delivered a credible set of Individual Action Plans
(or IAPs) which set out initial road maps to the goal of free trade,
and open trade and investment.
The IAPs reflect the strong existing momentum of trade liberalisation
in the region, but they also include new, positive commitments.
China, for example, is reducing its simple average tariff from the
current 23 per cent to 15 per cent 2000. Singapore and Hong Kong have
tabled plans to bind tariffs progressively to zero in the World Trade
Organisation (WTO).
The task before us now is to develop these initial efforts, including
by making further improvements to IAPs in consultation with
business.
The Australian Government, for its part, will be making a strong
contribution to these tasks.
Our approach to trade and investment liberalisation through the APEC
process reflects our conviction that liberalisation is vital for the
region's future.
It will enable more efficient exploitation of comparative advantage
in the region.
It will enable greater economies of scale.
It will improve resource allocation and, most importantly, it will
improve the quality of life for millions of citizens throughout the
region.
The benefits of trade liberalisation are already manifest in the Asia
Pacific.
For example, over the last five years, Japan gradually has opened
certain sectors of its enormous market for food. Japan's food imports
have tripled over the last decade and now total more than US$50
billion. This has been important for the world food exporters like
Australia, Thailand and China, and it has also given Japanese
consumers much greater access to less expensive and more varied food
products.
APEC is also delivering benefits to non-member economies, including
the countries of the European Union. Because APEC is liberalising on
the basis of open regionalism, improvements in access as tariffs fall
will be shared by all suppliers, provided they remain competitive.
The stimulus to growth which flows from liberalisation will similarly
increase imports from all regions.
Australia encourages European companies to look closely at Asia
Pacific markets, and indeed Australia is already playing an important
role as a base for international companies looking to expand their
operations in Asia. Over the last three years, more than 160
international companies have established regional headquarters in
Australia.
British companies have been leading the way in this trend of
utilising Australia as a base for Asia Pacific operations. These
companies have recognised Australia's attractions as a location for
export operations, joint ventures and regional research and
development activities.
Australia's workforce is well educated. Commercial and residential
accommodation and other business overheads are cheaper in Australia
than in many other regional capitals.
Australia's reliable legal system and business environment, its
lifestyle, its high quality education system, increasing Asia
expertise - including language skills - and the benefits to be
derived from Australia's first-rate telecommunications and
information technology systems are strong incentives.
At the global level, the recently concluded inaugural WTO Ministerial
Meeting provides the basis for continued global trade liberalisation.
It endorsed a post-Uruguay Round agenda for the multilateral trading
system and further global trade liberalisation. This reinforces
effective implementation of Uruguay Round outcomes and extends the
mandate of the WTO into new areas, such as trade and competition
policy. It also prepares the groundwork for further sectoral trade
liberalisation.
The commitment to conclude an agreement to eliminate tariffs in
information technology and telecommunication products early in 1997
was a key outcome. Australia expects this agreement will add to the
momentum for further WTO liberalisation in other sectors.
While Australia was in general very pleased with the Singapore
Ministerial, we thought the Conference could have adopted a stronger
statement on the need to slow the growth of discriminatory trading
blocs. Australia has a strong interest in the new WTO Committee on
Regional Trade Agreements developing into an effective instrument for
ensuring that preferential trading arrangements are subject to
rigorous examination. We are also interested in ensuring that the
WTO's rules on customs unions and free-trade areas are followed
comprehensively. The Australian Government believes that the WTO
should be at least as ambitious in its trade liberalisation efforts
as regional arrangements such as APEC.
These steps are all part of a broader process of comprehensive
engagement with the region. Our approach includes a stronger focus on
Australia's key bilateral relationships. Apart from strengthening
Australia's bilateral commercial relations in the region, the
Government is working to develop science and technology links,
research cooperation, cultural ties and people-to-people links with
our partners throughout the Asia Pacific.
All our efforts are based on a straight-forward recognition that the
Asia Pacific is a fundamental part of Australia's future.
PART TWO: ENHANCING AUSTRALIA'S SECURITY
A second major pillar of the Australian Government's foreign policy -
which is also intimately related to strengthening Australia's
engagement in the Asia Pacific region - is a commitment to
strengthening cooperative security.
The post-Cold War era has brought as many challenges as it has
opportunities, and this is especially the case in the Asia
Pacific.
In North East Asia, for example, it would have been impossible only a
few years ago to imagine the rapidly developing relationship we now
see between China and South Korea. This is very encouraging in terms
of finding a solution to hitherto intractable security problems on
the Korean Peninsula. Nevertheless, security on the Peninsula still
represents a massive challenge not just for regional countries but
for the international community as a whole.
Beyond these core security concerns, a range of other security issues
such as the potential proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
terrorism, drug trafficking and international crime have added extra
layers of complexity to the regional security environment.
The answer to these problems lies in building cooperative linkages.
You cannot just put up the shutters and hope the difficult issues
will go away. In the Asia Pacific, regional countries need to take
advantage of the window of opportunity presented by the current
relatively benign strategic environment to strengthen cooperation so
that difficult issues can be dealt with as they arise.
That means building a wider and stronger network of linkages at
bilateral, sub-regional, regional and multilateral levels. In this
way, we can contribute to the core task facing the Asia Pacific:
building a sense of trust, a sense of shared interests and a sense of
shared responsibility for the region's future.
For its part, Australia has been working at all four levels to help
in the development of an international security environment which
. forestalls resort to force in international disputes;
. prevents the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and
. encourages cooperation to enhance security in the Asia Pacific
region.
At the bilateral level, there is growing acceptance that strong,
confident relationships provide the underpinning for regional
stability and effective multilateral activity.
Australia has been extending its linkages throughout the Asia Pacific
at this level - under the rubric of "practical bilateralism". We make
practical contributions to the region's security through our Security
Agreements with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.
The Government sees its alliance with the United States in the same
light. Indeed the US presence in the Asia Pacific and its alliances
with key partners are a major element of the region's current
stability. Australia itself gave new vigour to the ANZUS alliance
through the Joint Declaration on Security which was announced during
the Australia-US Ministerial Talks (AUSMIN) in July. The central
focus of the Declaration was the contribution the alliance makes to
regional security.
In addition to these linkages based on formal arrangements, Australia
has a range of other strong and growing bilateral defence and
security ties with South East Asian countries.
Australia is also strengthening its bilateral security links with
North East Asian countries.
The Australian Government held inaugural political-military talks
with South Korea in July last year and, earlier in 1996, we held
inaugural pol-mil talks with Japan.
In August, we also reached agreement on official discussions with
China on regional security.
China needs to be involved and integrated into the emerging regional
security community. It will be an increasingly significant player in
the security and prosperity of the Asia Pacific region, and I am
convinced of the benefits of working cooperatively with it - both
bilaterally and in regional security processes and dialogues.
At the sub-regional level, the Five Powers Defence Arrangements,
which joins Australia and The United Kingdom with Singapore, New
Zealand and Malaysia, provide for similar cooperation and continue to
make a significant contribution to regional security.
At the regional level, the three year old ASEAN Regional Forum, or
ARF, is characterised by minimal institutionalisation, consensus
decision-making, an evolutionary approach to objectives and the use
of second track diplomacy.
Observers brought up in the tradition of European statecraft
sometimes question the value of the ARF because it is not itself able
at this stage to resolve conflicts and regulate security affairs.
It must be remembered, however, that unlike Europe, the Asia Pacific
has no tradition of inclusive multilateral approaches to security or
defence.
It will take time to build trust and confidence between those ARF
countries which have no tradition of discussing security concerns and
approaches to national security.
Australia is working with its partners in the region to ensure that
the ARF develops as a key regional process for promoting peace and
stability in the East Asia/Pacific region.
Preventive diplomacy - the second stage of the ARF's activities - is
already showing good potential. At the third ARF meeting in July last
year, for example, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas, used
his good offices as chairman to convey ARF members' concerns about
the situation in Burma to the Burmese Foreign Minister.
I am proud to say that Australia played an instrumental role in this
initiative.
Success with the ARF's confidence-building and preventive diplomacy
stages may lead in future to a third stage - the resolution of
conflict through agreed mechanisms.
How and when that could happen is not yet clear, as there are some
sensitivities, but I am keen to see the ARF make an early start on
dispute resolution and conflict avoidance.
The Australian Government also takes a strong interest in security
issues beyond its own region, in particular global arms control and
disarmament regimes. Australia is deeply committed to the maintenance
of international peace and security through multilateral
instruments.
Australia's initiative to secure the adoption of the CTBT last year
allowed for a genuine step forward in the non-proliferation and
disarmament agenda. That is something of which the Australian
Government is justifiably proud.
Australia is also strongly committed to working to rid the world of
anti-personnel landmines. The Australian Government's decision in
April to suspend operational use of anti-personnel landmines by the
Australian Defence Force and to support a global ban on the
production, stockpiling, use and transfer of anti-personnel landmines
was a clear indication of our determination to work for the
elimination of these weapons.
Australia also proposed during this year's General Assembly the
formation of a technology working group on landmine clearance. Our
commitment of $12 million over three years to help de-mining in
Cambodia and Laos gives a practical edge to this proposal. It is, I
think, an important step in redressing the humanitarian and economic
crisis caused by landmines.
PART THREE: UTILISING AUSTRALIA'S BROADER GLOBAL LINKS
The third key aspect of the Australian Government's foreign policy
has been to enhance Australia's broader global links.
The Australian Government regards Australia's links with other
countries beyond the Asia Pacific region as major assets. We have
also made clear that Australia not only has substantial political and
economic interests with European countries but can offer them a
competitive commercial base from which they can become increasingly
active in the Asia Pacific region.
Europe is a global pillar of stability and prosperity. Australia
suffered directly this century when European conflicts became global
conflicts. We therefore have a fundamental interest in Europe's
successfully managing the great challenge of developing political,
economic and security institutions appropriate to the changed
realities of the past decade.
To focus on just one dimension of Australia's relationship with
Europe, my Department last year published the first comprehensive
study on Australia's trade and investment relations with the European
Union. It sets out the active agenda Australia will pursue to enhance
our links with Europe.
In this context, it is perhaps worth noting a couple of
statistics.
The European Union is Australia's largest source of and host for
foreign investment, including foreign direct investment. It is
Australia's largest source of imports, including capital goods which
are fundamental to Australia's technology base and economic growth.
The EU as a whole is Australia's second largest market for exports of
both goods and services.
The commercial relationship clearly is a strong one, and there is
great potential for further growth. Nevertheless, there are also
challenges in the trade and investment relationship which must be
addressed. Above all, for Australia, is the deterioration that has
occurred in Australia's balance of trade with the EU over the last
six years - Australia's trade deficit with the EU has doubled since
1990.
There are, of course, a number of reasons for this problem, including
a slowdown in Europe's economic growth rates and structural problems
in European industries that consume Australian raw materials. But it
is also clear that the remaining EU impediments to Australian exports
are also a significant contributing factor.
For the Australian Government, improving Australia's access to
European markets - especially in the agriculture and coal sectors -
is a particularly high priority.
The Australian Government is also working to strengthen relations
with key partner countries within the European Union.
The revitalisation of Australia's relationship with France, following
the end of French nuclear tests in the Pacific, and support for the
CTBT, led France's Prime Minister Juppe to comment that "we have a
new basis for a new relationship between Australia and France".
The French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette said the relationship
was now at a stage which "allows us to turn the page and write new
ones". Most recently, the courage and professionalism displayed by
the Australian Defence Forces in the rescue of the stricken French
yachtsman, Thierry Dubois, has given another boost to the close ties
between the two countries.
This spirit of renewal augurs well for the future and has already led
to the commencement of negotiations for visa free travel for
Australian tourists and business people to France. The fact that
there was such strong cooperation between the two countries in
preparation for the General Assembly vote on the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty Resolution was a particularly potent symbol of the new
relationship.
Australia's Coalition Government has also established pol-mil talks
with Germany and launched the "Partnership 2000 Action Plan". This is
designed in particular to enhance the commercial relationship between
Australia and Germany. Already business leaders' groups in Germany
have been established to oversee and assist with its
implementation.
My visit to Italy tomorrow is the first by an Australian Foreign
Minister in almost nine years. The visit's objective is to help
revitalise the bilateral political and commercial relationship
between Italy and Australia. In Rome, together with my Italian
counterpart, Foreign Minister Dini, I will be announcing a detailed
strategy to achieve this aim.
Of course, Australia and the United Kingdom already have a very
strong relationship. In economic terms, the UK is Australia's
third-largest trading partner and Australia's main market in Europe.
The UK is the second-largest foreign investor in Australia and could
well become the largest in the next five years. On the other side of
the ledger, Australia is Britain's third-largest foreign investor,
with Australians investing more in the UK than, for example, Germany
or Japan.
This morning, Foreign Secretary Rifkind and I launched a major
bilateral trade and cultural promotion entitled "New Images" on an
Australian-built fast ferry in the Thames. The year-long promotion
aims to remove outdated stereotypes of each other and highlight the
modern and dynamic relationship between us.
"New Images" will, I think, presage a new era in what is already one
of the strongest relationships between any two countries in the
world.
PART FOUR: A HUMANE AND PRINCIPLED FOREIGN POLICY
A fourth pillar of Australia's approach to its international
relationships is a focus on a humane and principled foreign
policy.
Australian foreign policy is vitally concerned with upholding
internationally recognised standards of human rights and looking for
practical ways to enhance individual dignity and freedom and promote
democracy internationally.
This area of policy involves two major elements: public diplomacy and
constructive initiatives.
With regard to the first area of public human rights diplomacy,
Australia has continued to make strong representations to the
Government of Burma on specific human rights cases and is maintaining
regular contact with opposition spokespeople, including Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi.
We are also maintaining pressure on Burma's SLORC regime. Late last
year, Australia co-sponsored a human rights resolution on Burma in
the United Nations General Assembly, which sent a clear message to
the Burmese Government about the urgent need for improvements in the
human rights and political situation there.
The leader of the Burmese opposition in exile, Dr Sein Win,
specifically singled out Australia and a small number of other
countries for our "special efforts" in ensuring that the resolution
was representative of the current crisis in Burma.
Elsewhere, the Australian Government has committed $16 million to the
restoration and rebuilding process on Bougainville. This funding
would help to restore basic social services and infrastructure to an
island which has been ravaged by conflict for over eight years.
Restoration of the Bougainvillean economy would provide a clear peace
dividend for all Papua New Guineans.
By way of practical initiatives in other areas, the Government has
already given a contribution of $300,000 for the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to continue its human rights
monitoring work in East Timor. This is in addition to Australia's
continuing development assistance program to East Timor.
I also made it clear in Jakarta in April last year that Australia
will continue to lend whatever support it can to the two streams of
dialogue on East Timor held under the auspices of the United Nations,
and to help in reducing the dramatic unemployment problem in East
Timor. Most recently, the Government provided around $25,000 to meet
costs associated with the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timorese talks in
Austria in March 1996.
In looking to the future, the Australian Government is involved in
three initiatives which will make practical, long term contributions
to human rights and democracy at a structural level.
First, the Australian Government is supporting the development of
Asia-Pacific human rights arrangements. This is important because the
establishment of a human rights framework and institutional
infrastructure will bring our region into line with Europe, the
Americas and Africa.
Our support is being developed through the informal Asia Pacific
Forum of National Human Rights Institutions which was established
last June, and the Australian Government is providing $225,000 so
that the new Forum has a properly functioning secretariat.
The second Government initiative is the proposal to establish a new
Centre for Democratic Institutions which will focus on the promotion
of democracy and democratic change internationally. My Department is
currently developing detailed proposals for the Centre in conjunction
with Non-Government Organisations. Yesterday, I discussed the
initiative with Sir James Spicer, the Chairman of the Westminster
Foundation for Democracy, and we looked at how we might take this
proposal forward.
A third initiative to which I have lent my strong personal backing is
the establishment of an International Criminal Court.
I believe an International Criminal Court would be an important step
forward for the international community in dealing with the most
serious crimes of international concern such as genocide, war crimes,
and crimes against humanity. Its establishment will be one of the
Australian Government's prime multilateral and human rights
objectives in the next two years. The world needs an International
Criminal Court and Australia will work assiduously in helping to
deliver it.
Conclusion
Let me conclude by noting that Australia's approach to these foreign
policy issues has important implications for our partners in Europe.
Because the Asia Pacific is the fastest growing and most dynamic
region in the world, European countries are increasingly looking to
heighten their presence in Australia's part of the world. The
potential for growth through strengthened trade and investment ties
is immense.
Beyond immediate economic interests, in an increasingly integrated
world, the long-term stability and development of the Asia Pacific
will also have a progressively greater impact on Europe's prospects.
So it is in Europe's interest to work with regional countries like
Australia across a range of economic and strategic issues of mutual
interest.
The Australian Government is bringing Australia closer to its region.
It is enhancing Australia's security, working to make Australia's
ties outside the Asia Pacific region more productive, and maintaining
a humane and principled approach to foreign policy issues.
We are, in other words, preparing Australia in the best possible way
to meet the challenges of the 21st century.