ANZAC Lecture

Downer: Thanks very much Rich for that very kind and very generous introduction. I think those of us who are Australians here today will know that Australia has no better friend anywhere and, if I may say so, America has no finer public servant than Rich Armitage. We appreciate always your friendship and your support.

Professor Tidwell, who is the head of the Center for Australia and New Zealand Studies at Georgetown University.

Dr John Hamre, the head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Ambassador for Australia, Michael Thawley.

Deputy Head of Mission of New Zealand, Ian Hill.

Ambassador Ghazzali of Malaysia.

And Jim Kelly and Stanley Roth, the two former Assistant Secretaries for our part of the world. It’s good to see both of them as friends here today.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman.

It’s a real honour for me this year to be the person invited to deliver the 2005 ANZAC Lecture.

I’m grateful to the Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies – the ‘home’ of the annual ANZAC Lecture – and to the Center for Strategic and International Studies for convening this event.

For four decades now, CSIS has been at the forefront of the strategic debate and has also been a good friend of Australia.

And the Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies is also approaching an important landmark – I understand in August this year it celebrates a decade of contributing to international understanding of Australia and New Zealand. I appreciate that.

The spirit of ANZAC

As some of you will know, and Rich has touched on this already, ANZAC Day is of enormous significance to both Australians and New Zealanders.

It commemorates our landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey on 25 April 1915, as part of a larger coalition force that also included British, French, Indians, and other soldiers.

It was the first major engagement in which Australians and New Zealanders fought as independent nations on the world state.

The diggers, as they called them, who clung onto those hillsides for nine months, in appalling conditions, they’ve created a legend.

Their sacrifice memorialised their values – mateship, toughness, optimism, fairness, tenacity and a preparedness to stand up to bullies and to stand up to oppressors. And it created our national identity.

That campaign ended in stalemate, defeat and eventually evacuation. But many of the survivors went on to serve on the Western front in France, where they played a key role in stopping the German onslaught and then spearheading some of the great allied breakthroughs in 1918.

My theme today is a simple one: that the fundamental values and interests that spurred these young Australians to do what they did on the other side of the world 90 years ago remain the values and interests that animate our societies today and are at the core of the contemporary Australia-US alliance.

They explain why today’s alliance is deeper and stronger than it has ever been, more than 50 years since the ANZUS Treaty was signed.

Foundation of the alliance

It has never been the Australian way to stand aside and leave the hard work to others. Whether close to home in Asia and the South Pacific, or far off in Europe and the Middle East, Australians have always understood that peace and security are a collective good and, therefore, a collective responsibility.

Those young Australians who went to Gallipoli were, it’s true, driven partly by their loyalty to Britain and the British Empire. But we know from their own words that they knew that the interests of their own new nation were very much engaged by the titanic struggle then under way in Europe.

They understood that, if they failed to win the war, their lives and the lives of their families and their friends – even on the other side of the world – would change forever.

They knew that freedom, sovereignty and prosperity of their countries would be diminished. They knew that they would be diminished, and this they were not prepared to accept.

The Australia-US alliance was not formally embodied in the ANZUS Treaty until 1951. But it is worth noting that our collaboration on the battlefield goes back much further, to the cauldron of the First World War, when Australians and Americans fought together in the battle of Hamel on the 4^th of July, of all days, 1918.

I’m glad to say when we first fought together, we won together.

Rich and our other American friends won’t mind me mentioning, by the way, in passing that although the Americans were under the command of General Pershing, in that particular battle – the first battle the Americans fought on the Western front – they were with the Australians and under the command of the brilliant Australian General, John Monash.

We have fought together since then in every other major conflict: the Second World War; Korea; Vietnam; the first Gulf War; Afghanistan; and now Iraq.

I think that’s a proud record – a record of shared sacrifice in defence of the values both our countries hold dear.

It’s a record of standing up for the right of Australians and Americans – and of other peoples – to go about their own lives without fear.

It’s about their right to elect the government of their choice – and to throw them out if they do a bad job.

It’s about their right to worship freely, or not worship at all.

And, perhaps above all, it’s about the right of their children to grow up in a better world. Who could not be moved by the photo on the front page of yesterday’s Washington Post of an American soldier clutching the lifeless body of a tiny Iraqi child killed in an insurgent attack?

When 9/11 happened all Australians were, of course, shocked and deeply moved by America’s loss. We understood intuitively that the attack on you was even more than that.

It was an attack on the whole global order – a calculated attempt to strike simultaneously at our values and the institutions which embody them. Al Qaeda wanted to hurt and intimidate America. But they did so because of what America stands for in the world. And in doing so they attacked us all.

That’s why it was almost an instinctive decision for Australia to invoke the ANZUS Treaty, for the first time in its history.

I have had the privilege of meeting some of the young men we sent to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban in the mountains and caves of Afghanistan, and the other Australian Defence Force personnel who supported them and their coalition partners in the skies and at sea.

I was struck by how conscious they were of that ANZAC tradition I’ve spoken of – and their responsibility to live up to it.

And they did. In 2002, during the early stages of Operation Anaconda on a steep mountain-side in Afghanistan, a vicious battle broke out following a US attack on an al Qaeda position.

US troops were pinned down by enemy fire and in danger of being overrun by a much larger enemy force.

Australian special forcers in the vicinity helped to hold back the enemy forces with their own weapons and by calling in precision air strikes from US aircraft.

One Australian soldier ventured into the direct line of fire to assist his stricken American colleague. For this he received a US Medal for Gallantry.

Asked later what had kept him going that day, he said:

‘Being an Australian I think has got a fair bit to do with it. … We’ve got a proud tradition on the battlefield … and it’s up to us to uphold that.’

Operation Anaconda

That episode on the mountain in Afghanistan tells us a lot about today’s Australia-US alliance.

It reminds us that ultimately an alliance rests on friendship – or, to an Australian, mateship – and a preparedness to stand by one’s mates no matter how tough the going gets.

It reminds us of that long tradition of cooperation between the Australian and US militaries, and the mutual trust that has been built up in the process.

It reminds us that sometimes security at home can only be gained by taking the fight to our enemies wherever they may be. Information gained from operations in Afghanistan was used to thwart plans by Jemaah Islamiyah to bomb the Australian, US and UK missions in Singapore in December 2001.

…that level of cooperation between our forces on that mountain that I spoke of was no accident, but was based on decades of training and operating together around the world.

And it reminds us of the importance of having the best technology, intelligence and equipment available, and being able to link up seamlessly with each other’s systems.

It reminds us of the alliance’s continuing vitality. And it points to the areas we need to keep building on to make our alliance even stronger for the future.

Today’s alliance in Asia

As originally conceived, the ANZUS Treaty focused on the West Pacific.

Today’s Asia-Pacific region is, of course, very different from the region that confronted the visionaries on both sides who initiated the ANZUS Treaty in 1951.

Far from re-emerging as a threat as Australians feared then, Japan now makes a major contribution to regional stability and prosperity through its economic, political and diplomatic influence – which is why Australia strongly supports Japan’s claim to a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

And increasingly, through its alliance with the United States and a growing strategic partnership with Australia, Japan is making a more direct security contribution.

Today the Soviet threat is gone.

Asia is an engine of world economic growth. China’s economic rise will be one of the defining phenomena of our age.

Today’s Asia is also increasingly democratic.

Australia has warmly welcomed democratic progress in the Middle East, the Ukraine and former states of the Soviet Union. So has America.

But many are unaware that Indonesia is now the world’s third-largest democracy – as well as having the world’s largest Islamic population. It is an important security and economic partner for Australia, and it deserves more credit for its transformation to democracy.

A number of long-running problems have been resolved or are now being established on a more positive trend. East Timor is now an independent country with a chance at peace and prosperity. India and Pakistan are looking to resolve their differences.

Regional institutions are emerging to reinforce patterns of cooperation. APEC is the most important of these, and we are pleased to see it developing a security agenda to complement its trade and investment focus.

The US alliance system and its sustained economic and political engagement in Asia have underpinned these positive developments.

This remains just as vital now as it was throughout the past 50 years.

For all the progress I mentioned, the Asia-Pacific, though, does still face serious security challenges.

The US alliance with Australia – and its other alliances in the region – complicates the planning of would-be aggressors and it deters them.

We know from the Bali bombings in October 2002 and other attacks that extremists and terrorists have taken root in the margins of a number of South East Asian societies. Their baleful agenda is to replace moderate and secular governments with fundamentalist and regressive regimes in their own image.

We know that proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a major challenge to the region, most obviously in North Korea. The international community – and China in particular – needs to send a clear signal to Pyongyang that its pursuit of nuclear weapons is unacceptable.  No-one is fooled by North Korea’s antics and its efforts to pin the blame for its behaviour elsewhere.

None of these problems can be resolved or even managed without US leadership and engagement.

That is why the swift and generous US response to the tsunami disaster was so important in our region.

Working together in the core group, the United States, Australia, Japan and India, by the way, with countries like Singapore and Malaysia, whose Ambassador is here today, they led the way in responding to the tragedy.

It is why we so warmly welcome US efforts to increase the flexibility and deterrent capability of its forces in Asia.

It’s why we value the United States’ often unsung efforts to work with governments in our region to strengthen their capacities across the board, from counter-terrorism through to economic management.

It’s why we were pleased by the recent US decision to lift impediments to military cooperation with Indonesia and to hear that President Yudoyono will be welcomed in Washington in July.

But let me say – and this goes back to my theme today – that US leadership does not mean we expect the United States to carry the burden alone.

As we have throughout our history as a nation, Australia continues to play its part, in our region and beyond.

With American leadership we are proud to have helped to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his odious regime. We are proud now to be contributing to the, frankly, difficult task of giving Iraq a chance at democracy and freedom.

Our government recently agreed to deploy additional troops to al Muthanna province in the south of Iraq, where they are helping to provide a secure environment for reconstruction work by Japanese military engineers and also to train more Iraqi security forces.

It was a difficult decision but we took it because of our conviction that this is the time the international community should be standing by the newly-elected Iraqi government. We very much hope that other countries will come forward and assist Iraq in their own way. We all stand to gain from a successful, democratic Iraq – just as we all stand to lose if Iraq slips back to violence and tyranny.

Likewise we are working closely with the United States and other partners in the very successful Proliferation Security Initiative. We hosted the first Proliferation Security Initiative exercise in Australia, and now our focus is on encouraging our regional partners to become involved.

I was struck when I was in New York at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference earlier this week that there seems to be a view that somehow proliferation of these weapons is only a problem facing a small number of developed nations. Australia, the United States and our partners need to reach out and convince the international community this is a problem that could become a nightmare for all of mankind.

In other areas Australia is in the lead, with strong support from the United States. Australians are a pretty self-deprecating bunch, and that’s not a bad thing, and as a rule we don’t like to highlight our achievements – except perhaps in sport – and there are many of those.

But we are proud of our leadership role in the coalition that intervened in East Timor and our subsequent role in that country’s development. I’m pleased that we are close to reaching an agreement with the East Timor government on gas resources located in the Timor Sea – an agreement which will be fair to both countries.

We are proud of our efforts – not without cost and with the assistance of our South Pacific neighbours – to help bring the Solomon Islands back from the abyss of lawlessness and potential state failure.

And we are proud of our engagement with the government of Papua New Guinea to help improve its capacities to get the country on a sustainable path.

We are working with governments across South East Asia and the South Pacific to strengthen their counter-terrorism, law enforcement, border control and defence capabilities.

We recognize – more acutely than ever after 9/11 – that many benefits of globalization are accompanied by the perils of a borderless world. Transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, money laundering and weapons of mass destruction proliferation feed off each other, and above all they fill the vacuum created by weak or failing states.

Together Australia and the United States are responding.

Each of these endeavours takes place within the broader framework of the US alliance. The nature and intensity of US support varies from place to place. But in every case the alliance adds value – whether it’s broad political support, strategic deterrence, financial support, intelligence or simply mutual moral encouragement and the swapping of ideas and experiences.

Right now US personnel in Iraq are sparing no effort in helping us to locate, and hopefully to recover, Douglas Wood, an Australian citizen who has been taken hostage.

It’s another reminder of the closeness of our countries that, from our perspective, the United States is doing everything in this tragic situation involving an Australian that it would be doing for an American in the same circumstances.

Again it goes back to mateship, to trust and to shared values – including the fundamental belief in both of our societies that every individual has inherent worth and that every life is sacred.

Building on our alliance

From time to time you will hear, in the Australian debate, the suggestion that our alliance costs us in our region – that we should start to distance ourselves – or to ‘avoid having to choose’ – between the United States and Asia.

In my view that is a distorted view. It posits a false choice. The alliance is not a zero-sum game.

On the contrary, it adds value to Australia’s engagement with our region.

It contributes directly to our own security. But it also adds to our strategic weight and capability in the region, and our ability to protect and advance our interests.

The training, technology and intelligence Australia accesses through the alliance ensure that we can make successful and highly valued contributions to complex joint operations, as in Afghanistan and Iraq.

They also help us to work easily together to bring relief to our neighbours in times of great humanitarian crisis – as was demonstrated in the tsunami disaster.

Moreover, the alliance gives us access and influence in Washington out of all proportion to our size. This enhances our ability to pursue our broader international, security and economic interests.

We are well aware, however, that the alliance is not an asset Australia can or should take for granted.

It is something we need to keep working at. Further strengthening that alliance remains one of the Government’s key strategic priorities.

Ultimately the relevance and vitality of the alliance will depend on its utility to both partners – which takes us back to the mountain-side in Afghanistan.

Interoperability is crucial to what we can achieve together. We need to keep building on the joint statement of principles of interoperability signed at AUSMIN last year.

Training is key. Last year we agreed to develop a Joint Combined Training Center to enhance the quality of bilateral training and Australian Defence Force capabilities.

I am delighted that major Australia-US military exercises will again take place in various areas around Australia during the course of next month.

We have signed a memorandum of understanding that provides a framework for cooperation on missile defence. The missile threat in the Asia-Pacific – and to deployed forces more generally – is significant. We see missile defence as a vital area of collaboration and a driver of military integration in other areas, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Equipment and systems too are critical, particularly on an increasingly networked battlefield.

We are developing capabilities to support the ability for Australian forces to operate further from our own territory, whether in our own region or beyond.

We need to ensure that both our countries take a strategic approach to defence industry cooperation rather than a more traditional commercial one.

Australia is at the leading edge in many defence technologies.

Our companies are closely involved in the development phase of the Joint Strike Fighter, which has the potential to be a transformational capability for the Australian Defence Force.

This kind of close defence industry collaboration will become increasingly important. Greater access to US information and technology is essential to the ability of our two defence forces to fight effectively together.

This extensive web of security cooperation is framed by a high-quality strategic dialogue.

I have had valuable discussions here in Washington on pressing issues of concern to both countries with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Hadley, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and with other officials.

I am very pleased that Secretary Rice, Japan’s Foreign Minister Machimura and I have agreed during my visit to the United States to upgrade our existing Trilateral Security Dialogue to foreign minister level.

Our three countries have substantial strategic interests in common, and we seek considerable potential to build on trilateral security cooperation.

And I look forward to hosting our Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations – which bring together the foreign and defence ministers – in Australia later this year.

Conclusion

Let me say in conclusion, Rich Armitage is one of the alliance’s most loyal champions, and it’s good to see him today.

But I would like to conclude by expressing the Australian Government’s gratitude to another of the alliance’s most effective supporters and practitioners, Ambassador Michael Thawley.

Michael has been an outstanding advocate for Australia in his five years heading the Embassy in Washington, and he’s been one of our finest ambassadors ever.

I know how respected and well-liked he is here – I hear that through the back door – and I know how good his connections are – which is always an enormously important challenge for ambassadors.  And I always say that to them – ‘have good networks’. And his connections are excellent in government, importantly on Capitol Hill and, of course, in business.

Many of the things we’ve achieved with the United States in recent years, not least, by the way, the Free Trade Agreement that we negotiated, owe much to Michael’s imagination, his bold thinking, his ability to get things done, his flair, and I think, quite often, his courage. He’s one of those people who’s fearless in standing up to the Americans when he has something to say to them. He’s even fearless in standing up to the Prime Minister and his own Minister.

The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force on 1 January of this year, may be the most enduring legacy of Michael’s work to strengthen the ties between our two countries.

Personally, I don’t think that the Free Trade Agreement would have happened without him.

Without his energy, his bravado, and nor would many of the other initiatives I have been talking about today.

In this and other positions, his influence on Australian strategic policy has been profound.

I know I can speak for my boss, the Prime Minister, and my other Ministerial colleagues in recording how much we have appreciated Michael’s tireless support and wise counsel as we confronted some of the most difficult international challenges Australia has ever faced.

Michael will be enormously missed, and we wish him and his wife Debbie well as they prepare to take up a new career in, of course, the private sector. And no doubt he’ll be paid a great deal more.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.