Speech to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute National Security Dinner

A Modern Australia for a New Era

Sydney 9 April 2008

Mr Chris Jenkins, thank you for your kind introduction.

Chairman of ASPI, Mr Mark Johnson, Executive Director, Major General Abigail and members of the Council, thank you for inviting me to address tonight’s dinner.

I begin by acknowledging the continuing value of ASPI’s work in encouraging informed debate about Australia’s strategic and security policy challenges.

It’s a debate which has opened up with the coming to office of the new Government: it is a debate that we welcome and that we will continue to pursue.

We came to office believing that Australia is a country with global interests, positive values and virtues, and a deep interest in the wellbeing of others.

Against this background, the Government has a clear but simple starting point: for Australia to make the most of these characteristics.

We need to take every opportunity available to us in international affairs - working with major powers, globally, regionally, bilaterally and, importantly, taking much greater advantage of international institutions to make a positive contribution to international security and increasing the wealth and prosperity of nations.

If we fail to take advantage of these opportunities, no matter how difficult some may be, if we hesitate to step up, we will find our capacity to protect and enhance our national interest reducing, and our security and wellbeing declining.

Introduction

National security is a broad and malleable concept these days. The traditional approach focuses narrowly on individual nation states and their conventional military assets and threats. In a modern, globalised world, this approach only represents one dimension of the challenge and does not encompass a range of factors relevant to a nation’s security in the twenty first century.

Today, there is no doubt that factors like international terrorism, weapons proliferation (including the risk of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorists), transnational crime, including organised people smuggling, environmental degradation, energy security, health pandemics, or even just plain old fashioned poverty and inequality as a cause of instability, are all seen rightly in my view, as key factors affecting Australia’s security, and more particularly, the personal safety and security of ordinary Australian citizens.

It is also a truism that internal and external threats to national security have blurred. Addressing these threats more often than not requires both an external and a domestic dimension. In Australia it demands the attention and resolve of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments.

The Australian Government is determined to look afresh at our strategic and national security challenges and how to respond to them. We need to adapt and respond to new challenges.

This century, a globalised world demands more than ever a committed and active bilateral, regional and multilateral diplomacy from Australia.

Or as the Prime Minister has said: active, creative middle power diplomacy.

You have often heard that expression: ‘Australia punches above its weight’.

Frankly, it’s an expression I hate, largely because I don’t believe that it has been true in the recent period!

As a good international citizen, Australia can and should do more in the world. While we are only the 50th or so largest country in terms of population, we are in the top 15 largest economies. In terms of living standards measured by income per capita, we are among the top 20 countries and we are also among the top dozen military or peacekeeping spenders.

We are a significant and a considerable nation.

We are a regional leader. We are not, however, a powerhouse. Regional and multilateral institutions work well for a nation like Australia.

Working internationally to strengthen the mechanisms of international order helps underpin Australia’s safety and prosperity. Australia benefits immensely from a global and regional order based on principles, norms and rules which regulate relations between nation states.

Tonight, I’d like to outline briefly how the Government’s foreign policy approach helps Australia confront the challenges presented by constant and rapid international change.

We want a modern Australian foreign policy approach for a new international era.

To an audience such as this, it often goes without saying that foreign policy is an indispensable arm of strengthening national security and strategic interests.

There are a range of aspects to the implementation of foreign policy:

• prevention of conflict;
  
• resolution of conflict;
  
• post conflict reconstruction;
  
• consolidating long standing relationships;
  
• forging new ones;
  
• building on good bilateral relations to generate global outcomes through multilateral engagement; and
  
• creating, building and maintaining the conditions in which nation states can peacefully and peaceably pursue their own prosperity.
  

Global security challenges

Let me take a quick strategic snapshot of our part of the world at the beginning of this century. I see both familiar certainties and much that is changing.

The United States still provides the ballast which underpins the international order.

Australia’s alliance with the United States remains indispensable to Australia’s defence, security and strategic arrangements. That will continue to be the case for a very considerable period of time.

Japan has been our closest and most consistent friend in our region for many years.

Australia and Japan have many things in common, including our shared values, our democratic outlook and our shared regional engagement.

Japan is a key economic, security and strategic partner of central importance. Our cooperation on regional security issues continues to expand.

All this provides the basis for a critical partnership that will see both countries working together in the region for many years to come.

Then there are the emerging, great powers, China and India, with which our relations inexorably will continue to develop.

The Whitlam Labor Government recognised China with its one-China policy and established diplomatic relations with a still-closed China thirty five years ago in 1972, when it was not fashionable to do so.

Since then, Australia, initially led by my home state of Western Australia through the great minerals and petroleum resources industry, has benefited from China’s astonishing economic emergence onto world markets and the scale of its economic growth.

Today, our relationship with China embraces much more than just the resources industry. I held the first Australia-China Strategic Dialogue with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang in Canberra recently, which provided an opportunity to exchange views on Australia’s and China's respective strategic outlooks and to discuss emerging regional and global challenges.

To the west, India has thrust itself into our economic and strategic consciousness.

Australia has for too long under appreciated India, the world’s largest Parliamentary democracy. As I said in my very first formal remarks as Foreign Minister, Australia’s relationship with New Delhi is something this Government is determined to expand and deepen. We need to take our relationship with India to a new level.

Over the last few decades, the Republic of Korea has become a regional economic dynamo. Korea has been one of Australia’s major trading partners of the post-World War Two period. Under its new President Lee Myung-bak, it’s looking to play a greater role in regional strategic and security issues, as it should be, and which we welcome.

At one level, all these changes reflect unprecedented economic growth and dynamism in our region, from which Australia is very well placed to continue to benefit economically.

At the same time, we have to remain alert to the strategic implications of the shifts that accompany the new economic strength in the Asia Pacific region.

I strongly believe that it is possible to have very good relationships – be they an alliance, a partnership or a dialogue – with each of these nations without that being at the expense of our relationships with the others.

It can be win win.

It is not a zero sum game.

We want not only to have good relations with all of these nations but for each of them to have good relationships with each other as well.

Let’s now look at some of the threats and the causes of instability that I referred to earlier. Australia can’t deal with them in isolation. More importantly, we can’t deal with them by ourselves.

International terrorism is chief among these threats and ties up considerable state resources. It causes great and indiscriminate human suffering and threatens order and stability by creating fear. As has been shown in Bali, Jakarta, New York, London and Madrid, Australia and Australians are not immune to this menace.

Hence the importance of our significant counter terrorism cooperation in our immediate region and neighbourhood, starting with Indonesia.

It is one of the reasons we remain so committed to the international effort in Afghanistan. Not just to counter terrorism, but to help build that nation state’s institutions and its capacity to govern its own affairs, provide for its people and prevent the country again becoming an incubator of and for terrorists.

In this effort – as in other international security challenges- we share a common approach with, for example, countries of the European Union, as has been made clear during the Prime Minister’s recent very productive talks in Europe.

Prevention is always better than a cure.

Everyone would prefer pre-conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, but the reconstruction is essential.

Australia’s post conflict reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, as in Iraq, East Timor and the Solomon Islands, are not aimed simply at peace and security for peace and security’s sake. Our aims are higher - to set the scene for the capacity and nation building, to help uplift the lives and living standards of those nations’ peoples.

Transnational criminal activity poses another threat and danger. The proceeds of such illicit activities fund terror and undermine the authority of governments. Weak, failing or fragile states are particularly vulnerable to the transnational criminal threat.

The threat of nuclear, biological or chemical proliferation and the risk of that proliferation to terrorist groups is ever present. Our international institutions and instruments are under pressure in this regard. This is why enhanced cooperation on non proliferation and disarmament is a priority for the Government.

Global environmental threats, particularly dangerous climate change, also pose challenges, from which geography alone will not shield us.

The Australian Government is deeply conscious of the danger that the lack of concerted international action by both developed and developing nations over dangerous climate change poses to the world and to us.

Left unanswered, climate change is one of the major security challenges of our time.

It’s a threat that represents a potent example of the futility of not acting or acting in isolation.

The potential for global health pandemics, which might for example arise from the spread of avian flu, could also have a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions of people, crippling both trade flows and the movement of people.

Then there is the possible combination of the two.

Deadly and debilitating diseases like malaria already cause grave harm in many countries. Their potential spread is just one of the potential adverse consequences of climate change.

Finally, there is plain old-fashioned poverty, inequality and lack of good governance.

Our commitment to increasing Australia’s aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015 reflects our determination to play a larger role in reducing poverty, inequality and lack of governance that feed instability.

The Government’s foreign policy response

In countering these challenges to our nation, how do we make the best use of the diplomatic tools available in this century?

The Government’s foreign policy approach has three core elements, but crucially they are each mutually reinforcing.

And they are by no means geographically exclusive: they serve our global interests and our regional priorities.

First, our alliance with the United States is indispensable.

The United States system of security alliances - including United States -Australia alliance and the United States-Japan Alliance - is essential to maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. The United States’ role has continued to provide the stability that allows nations in our region to focus on their pursuit of economic prosperity. An ongoing presence in, and active engagement by the United States in the Asia Pacific, is essential into the future for both security and prosperity reasons.

Furthermore, the United States, which helped create the international institutions that underpin the post World War II order – such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – must now help to drive their reform. At the same time, we must do our share and put our shoulder to the wheel to help drive these reform processes.

It is of course possible to have such an Alliance, while from time to time having a different view, as the orderly withdrawal of our combat troops from Iraq is showing.

Second, Australia has traditionally been a strong supporter of the United Nations. Our engagement with the United Nations has been long and active. We were a founding member, we’re the 13th largest contributor to its budget, and we’ve contributed to over 50 peacekeeping operations. This includes the recent increase in our contribution to UNAMID, reflecting as it does together with our grave concerns over recent developments in Zimbabwe, Australia’s renewed interest in Africa.

While not a perfect institution, the United Nations has and can serve a country like Australia very well indeed.

The challenges we as a nation confront today are overwhelmingly shared problems.

They require a shared response.

Our decision to seek election to a non-permanent seat on the Security Council in 2013-14 is an indication of how serious we are in wanting to do our bit.

It is appropriate that Australia contributes to international peace and security by being a member of the Security Council from time to time.

It gives us a seat at the table.

We are a well developed prosperous nation.

We are a robust parliamentary democracy.

We respect the rule of law and human and individual rights.

We are a tolerant people and nation.

It is in our strategic and security interests to proudly take our values and virtues as a good international citizen to the world.

Australia was at the first meeting of the Security Council in 1946.

We were on the Security Council during the Suez Canal crisis in 1956 when the first ever armed UN peace-keeping force was established, and again in 1974 when the Security Council adjudicated on South Africa’s membership during the apartheid era.

Such active participation also enhances our status and standing in our own region as a regional power and partner.

The Australian Government will be engaged and contribute to and through the United Nations. We reject the approach of the previous Government in pulling back from contributing to the United Nations.

We are committed to sensible reform of the United Nations.

We want to help make it more effective and efficient.

It is important to make the point that there is no choice to be made between Australia’s bilateral relationships, and a more active role and involvement in international institutions and multilateral fora. The two are mutually reinforcing and we must and will pursue both.

The third element of our foreign policy approach is our comprehensive engagement with Asia and the Pacific.

Our national security is very closely linked to the stability, openness and prosperity of the Asia Pacific.

We need our region as a whole committed to an open trading system.

We need a continued strong United States presence.

And we need regional diplomatic and security mechanisms that can absorb and accommodate the different strategic and economic interests of nations such as Japan, China and India.

Getting the architecture right is a complex task, but it’s what we have to aim for, using all the creativity and focus at our disposal.

Underpinning our efforts in this respect is a strong and growing network of regional security partnerships and exchanges.

With Japan, we engage bilaterally through the Japan-Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation, and, more broadly, through the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue that includes the United States.

The bilateral Strategic Dialogue between Australia and China, which commenced in February 2008, is a new and important element in our bilateral relations.

Our relationship with Indonesia is critical.

I have no hesitation in saying that the relationship with Indonesia we inherited from the previous government was a very good one. The Prime Minister and my first trip overseas was to Indonesia for the Bali Climate Change Conference. During our visit we held very successful bilateral meetings with President Yudhoyono and Foreign Minister Wirajuda. Our relationship is first rate, but we can take it to a new level and a genuine partnership.

The Lombok Treaty recently signed in Perth provides a very good framework for this work and the ongoing basis for cooperation to tackle traditional and non-traditional security threats.

The Five Power Defence Arrangement with Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK remains an important element of our regional security architecture. It is the only multilateral arrangement in the region with an operational dimension. A rigorous exercise program remains an important component of current and future Five Power Defence Arrangement.

This is an extensive network of close regional ties requiring and benefiting from continuous engagement.

In the Pacific, we’ve committed ourselves to a new era of genuine partnership with Pacific nations. Our goal is to help build strong, stable prosperous nations through our proposed Pacific Development Partnerships, done in close cooperation with New Zealand.

We have strengthened ties with the new Solomon Islands Sikua Government, and are now working with other Pacific Island Forum countries to build on the success of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

Our relationship with Papua New Guinea is now not just back on track but one which is enthusiastic about a new era of cooperation and shared obligation, with the Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministers Forum due later this month.

We have embarked on a fresh approach to our Pacific neighbours - one based on mutual respect, shared goals and genuine partnerships. This emphasis on shared goals and responsibilities is at the heart of the Government's new policy framework, set out in the Port Moresby Declaration by the Prime Minister during his visit to Papua New Guinea on 6 March 2008.

Together with our partners in the Pacific Islands Forum, we are committed to keep up the pressure on Fiji to hold elections by March 2009.

Regional security mechanisms

More broadly, we believe that the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit make important contributions to regional security discussions. We welcome the signing late last year of the ASEAN Charter. The establishment of this institutional framework is a fitting development for such a significant regional grouping.

Australia can do and should do more both in and with ASEAN and the ASEAN members.

In addition to that, more needs to be done to improve our regional security architecture.

There’s no doubt that a regional mechanism in which member countries could discuss common security challenges would be beneficial.

Australia strongly supports the work of the Six Party talks in tackling the security challenge posed by North Korea. A breakthrough on the North Korean nuclear issue has the potential to transform the Korean Peninsula.

It is conceivable that the Six Party Talks could evolve into a new regional security grouping. If that were to happen, Australia would want to be included. We have vital economic and security interests in North Asia and the commitment and capacity to tackle shared regional security challenges, including on the Korean peninsula.

While APEC does not formally consider security matters, APEC meetings provide a significant forum for Foreign Ministers and Leaders to meet regularly. The APEC Summit will be held in Lima, Peru this year reflecting the important contribution of Latin American states to the economic, trade and investment environment of the Asia Pacific.

Conclusion: effective international citizenship

We need to shape and help others shape a stronger, rules-based order for the modern world. A more stable secure international system is fundamentally in Australia’s national interest.

It is why we are committed to the United Nations and have made a bid for a seat on the United Nations’ highest decision-making body on international peace and security.

It is why we remain committed to the US alliance, and to the system of US alliances in our region.

It’s why we will do all we can to contribute to the evolution of security architecture in Asia and to build genuine partnerships in the Pacific.

This is what the new Australian Government is committed to.

And determined to deliver on.

We have begun with certainty: in our first months we have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, responded strongly to the security crisis in East Timor, and outlined our approach to development challenges in the Pacific.

We plan to continue as we have started, by being a government of ideas, one that is prepared to contribute to the debate but more importantly to help shape it.

We want to be active and principled. We are clear-eyed about the challenges and steadfast in prosecuting our values and virtues as a nation.

It means helping those less well off than ourselves to tackle the poverty and despair that give rise to the modern terrorism, transnational crime environmental degradation and disease which challenge our national security.

It means helping to strengthen the institutions of governance and democracy in our region and the world.

It means contributing fresh thinking to solving regional and global security challenges.

And it means upholding the standards of civilised international behaviour, by being a good international citizen.

It means a modern Australian foreign policy, for a new era.

Thank you.