Asia and International Security: An Australian Perspective
Casa Asia, Madrid
Speech, (Check Against Delivery)
15 February 2010
Thank you Mr Jesus Sanz, Director-General of Casa Asia, and Mr Antonio de Oyarzabal. Vice-President of the the Royal Elcano Institute, for that kind introduction.
Casa Asia was founded in 2001 to strengthen ties between Spain and the Asia-Pacific region. The Royal Elcano Institute was founded in the same year to help advance Spain's international engagement. Both play leading roles in the public discussion about Asia and its importance to Spain and Europe.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to address you here.
Australia and Spain
The bilateral relationship between Australia and Spain is strong, friendly and cooperative.
During the visit to Australia by the King and Queen of Spain in June last year, our countries signed a Joint Action Plan to strengthen our cooperation - bilaterally, regionally and globally.
This is my first visit to Spain - and the first by an Australian Foreign Minister since 2002.
My visit aims to build on the momentum generated by the Joint Action Plan and to take forward our practical cooperation.
This morning I met with Prime Minister Zapatero. Prime Minister Rudd has invited him to visit Australia and I hope very much that he is able to do so later this year.
I also met with Secretary of State for International Co-operation, Soraya Rodriguez. We agreed to explore cooperation between Australia and Spain in the delivery of international development assistance in Africa and the Caribbean.
I also officially opened the new premises of the Australian Embassy in Madrid.
I look forward to meeting this evening with my counterpart, Foreign Minister Moratinos. We met recently in London in the margins of the Afghanistan conference, and I look forward very much to meeting him again here in Madrid to discuss ways in which we can further advance our bilateral cooperation.
Australia welcomes the strengthening of our defence and security cooperation. I will meet tomorrow with Defence Minister Chacon.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Materiel Cooperation between Australia and Spain, signed in November 2008, provides a framework to further our growing defence engagement.
Three major defence capability projects were awarded to Spanish companies:
- The $8 billion Air Warfare Destroyer project
- The $3 billion amphibious ships project
- And the nearly $1.5 billion air-to-air refueller project, now part of Airbus military.
Spanish infrastructure companies have recently successfully tendered to build desalination plants in my home state of Western Australia, and in South Australia.
Our people-to-people links are growing, including in education.
Some 84,000 Australian residents claim Spanish descent.
The opening last year of the Cervantes Institute in Sydney was a great boost for the study and appreciation of Spanish culture and language in Australia.
Australia and Spain share common approaches to international concerns, including nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, counter-terrorism, climate change and peacekeeping.
We are both committed to international stabilisation efforts in Afghanistan.
We share a commitment to multilateralism. Australia, like Spain, has a strong interest in strengthening the international order and working with like-minded countries for international peace, security and prosperity.
Australia and Europe
Europe is home to many of the world's multilateral institutions.
This week I will visit the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Australia greatly appreciates the welcome we have received as the newest Asian Partner for Co-operation of the OSCE.
It is reflected in our desire to contribute to the work of the OSCE.
Australia fully supports the work of the OSCE and its comprehensive and co-operative approach to security.
We will make a constructive, practical contribution to the work of the organisation.
Our shared commitment to multilateralism is also reflected in the Australia-EU Partnership Framework, which I launched with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in October 2008.
The Partnership Framework has put Australia-EU relations in a modern framework. It takes us into an era of creative, broad-based engagement on common interests including international security, trade, development assistance, science and climate change.
It has delivered important results, including:
- the European Commission's foundation membership of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute;
- signature of the Australia-EC Wine Agreement; and
- launch of negotiations on a new air transport agreement between Australia and the EU.
In October last year in Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and I renewed and extended the Partnership Framework to encompass new activities including:
- a new officials-level dialogue on counter-terrorism;
- exploring an agreement on food certification standards;
- a commitment to implement the Pacific Islands Forum's Cairns Compact on Strengthen Aid Coordination in the Pacific; and
- exploring cooperation to enhance the security of nuclear materials in South East Asia.
Australia very much looks forward to working with Spain during its European Union Presidency to take the Australia-EU Partnership forward.
Asia and Europe
Australia looks forward to joining Spain, along with the 26 other European Union nations, the European Commission, 16 Asian nations and the ASEAN Secretariat at the next Asia-Europe Meeting Summit to be held in Brussels in October this year.
Through its Leaders' summits, ASEM provides an important forum for leaders from our two regions to strengthen economic, political and strategic ties between Europe and Asia.
ASEM encourages effective regional and global approaches to international problems including the global economic crisis, climate change and realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.
Our participation in the Asia Europe Meeting process reflects Australia's commitment to working regionally and multilaterally to address economic, political and security challenges.
It reflects the Australian Government's commitment to the strongest possible relations with our Asian neighbours, and a strong and modern partnership with Europe.
Australia's absence from this forum was an historical anomaly which we have now put behind us with strong support from Asia and Europe.
I greatly appreciate Spain's unwavering support for Australia's ASEM membership.
The Asia Pacific Century
This is the century of the Asia-Pacific.
Economic, political, military and strategic influence is moving to the Asia-Pacific, to our part of the world.
In this century, the Asia-Pacific will become the world's centre of gravity.
The rise of China is a defining element of Asia's growing influence, but it is not the only or whole story.
Everyone sees the rise of China but the rise of India is still underappreciated, as is the rise of the ASEAN economies combined.
The great individual potential of Indonesia and the enduring economic strengths of Japan and South Korea must also be acknowledged.
On average, our region's economic growth has been outpacing other regions for many years. APEC's 21 member economies represent approximately half the world's GDP and trade.
The ongoing shift in influence is, however, not just about economics or demographics.
Economic power underpins military modernisation. It contributes to political and strategic weight.
The Asia-Pacific is home to the world's five largest militaries - the United States, Russia, China, India, and North Korea.
The implications of this historic shift continue to unfold. No one can say with certainty what the new international or regional order will look like or when it might crystallise.
Some people seem implicitly to assume that the economic and strategic influence of the United States, the world's largest economy and superpower, will somehow be eclipsed overnight.
The United States, which has underwritten stability in the Asia- Pacific for the last half-century, will continue to be the single most powerful and important strategic actor in the region for the foreseeable future, both in its own right and through its network of alliances and security relationships.
The Asia-Pacific region has prospered because of the foundations laid down by this stability.
Australia believes the ongoing engagement of the United States in the Asia Pacific is absolutely essential to our region's interests.
The relative resilience of the region amid the global economic crisis has also brought home to others that our region is and will be crucial to global economic stability and growth.
This was one of the factors behind the emergence this year of the G20 as the premier forum for global economic cooperation.
Prior to the financial crisis, only the United States, Canada and Japan, of the Asia-Pacific countries, were members of the principal global economic institution, the G7 industrialised economies.
Ten countries of the Asia-Pacific region are in the G20: Australia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, and the United States of America.
Australia has high ambitions for the G20 and the Asia-Pacific region's influence in it.
It can become a political driver of stronger global cooperation and governance, responding to the range of global challenges that will confront us in this the Asia-Pacific century.
The G20 of course also has significant implications for Europe, and in that context Australia supports Spain's ongoing involvement in the G20.
Bilateral relationships
Vital, enduring and long term Australian economic, security and strategic interests are concentrated in North Asia.
Japan and China are two of the world's three largest economies. Together with South Korea they represent Australia's top three merchandise export markets.
At the same time, North Asia is home to some of the world's largest armed forces and a number of its potential flashpoints.
Our relations with Japan are strong and continue to grow. Japan has been our closest and most consistent partner in East Asia for many years. For over 40 years, Japan has been Australia's largest export market.
Australia is committed to strengthening relations with Japan, not only by intensifying high level relations, but by building on our respective Alliances with the United States through the Trilateral Security Dialogue.
We are working to enhance defence and security cooperation in maritime security and combating organised crime. Former foreign ministers of both Australia and Japan co-chaired the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, which reported recently.
Australia has been successfully building a balanced and productive relationship with China, commencing with our early recognition and an early focus on trade links, particularly minerals and petroleum resources from my own state of Western Australia.
The Government is strongly committed to strengthening it even further.
China was Australia's second largest trading partner in 2008. In recent times, it has become an increasingly important foreign investor in Australia. The Government remains committed to a comprehensive and mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement with China.
Our bilateral relationship is more than just economic. It is comprehensive, covering all aspects of a bilateral relationship. During my visit to Beijing last year, Foreign Minister Yang and I conducted the second Australia-China Strategic Dialogue.
Given our different socio-political systems, differences will inevitably arise from time to time. Both countries have an interest in successfully managing these issues and differences, and focusing on the much wider range of issues where our interests coincide.
Australia is expanding a long standing close relationship, forged in the aftermath of the Korean War, with South Korea.
Australia and South Korea are firm friends and close regional partners. South Korea is Australia's third-largest export market and our sixth-largest trading partner. We have commenced negotiations for a comprehensive bilateral FTA.
We are working together to advance a broad agenda, including in the World Trade Organisation and the G20.
The relationship, though, still has great untapped potential.
In March 2009, Prime Minister Rudd and South Korean President Lee issued the joint statement for closer cooperation in areas such as border security, disarmament, non-proliferation, disaster response and peacekeeping.
The bilateral relationship is underpinned by growing people-to-people links. South Korea is Australia's second largest source of working holiday makers and our third largest source of overseas students.
A key challenge in the North Asia region is North Korea. Australia is very concerned about North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which threaten stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North Asia. It poses a major challenge to global counter-proliferation efforts.
Australia supports international efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of Korean peninsula security issues, especially through the Six Party Talks. In addition to implementing UN sanctions against North Korea, including through the most recent UNSC Resolution 1874, Australia has also put in place autonomous sanctions. These include a visa ban on all North Korean nationals and a ban on North Korean-flagged ships entering Australian ports.
Although our bilateral aid program has been suspended, Australia continues to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the North through UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
South Asia is increasingly important for Australia's strategic and economic interests.
Australia is committed to taking its relationship with India to the front rank of our bilateral partnerships.
Today, the world is beginning to see India, the largest parliamentary democracy, assume the global influence to which its economic size and strength, its strategic weight and its rich history entitle it.
The Government is determined to seize upon an historic opportunity to take our relationship with India to a new economic and strategic level. This momentum has occurred despite, not because of, any concerted Australian governmental effort over the past thirty years or so.
Fast-growing trade and investment links are key drivers of the Australia-India relationship.
Within a few years, India is likely to become Australia's third largest export market behind China and Japan.
In 2008-09, India was Australia's fourth-largest merchandise export market and seventh largest merchandise trading partner.
Two-way trade - including goods and services - was nearly $A22 billion. That was a 55 per cent jump on the previous year, making India our fastest growing major trading partner.
Australia and India are looking to cement our excellent trade relations through a possible FTA.
But there is certainly much more than an economic complementarity between our two countries. There are ties of language, parliamentary democracy and respect for the rule of law, the law of contract and intellectual property and of, course, sporting traditions.
We have profound values and interests in common and we cooperate both regionally and multilaterally to advance those common interests, whether that is climate change, energy, food security, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation or counter-terrorism.
The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund is Australia's largest bilateral science fund. It underwrites cooperation in areas such as climate change, water conservation and information technology security, where Australia and India have a great deal to offer each other in terms of expertise and innovation.
In addition our defence cooperation with India is growing rapidly, encompassing regular senior-level talks.
Our relationship with India has faced a recent challenge of great concern to Australians and Indians alike - the contemptible attacks on Indian students and others of Indian origin in Australia.
Australia is a major destination for Indian students studying abroad. There were over 120,000 Indian student enrolments in Australia in 2009.
These attacks are inexcusable. And Australia is taking this matter very seriously.
When we face these challenges, we address them in a frank and honest way, but in a way which does not disturb the ongoing nature of the relationship with India and our strategic partnership.
We do so because Australia and India's broad-based relationship is grounded in common interests, shared values and democratic traditions.
Regional Groupings
The importance of fostering regional cooperation both in the economic and security spheres is a key priority for Australia.
The Asia-Pacific region, by harnessing its collective strategic and economic weight through enhanced cooperation, can exert considerable influence internationally.
Australia is devoting considerable attention to the critical question of ensuring that the region's architecture can effectively enable its leaders to discuss the key strategic and economic challenges.
That is the thinking behind Australia's Asia Pacific community initiative, which simply asks the question: what sort of regional architecture do we need to have by the year 2020?
Our support for ensuring effective regional engagement in key international groupings also lies behind our strong support for Japan and India's bids to become permanent members of the UN Security Council.
While ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit remain of central importance to Australia's involvement in existing regional architecture, there are other key regional groupings: not only APEC, but SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and of course the Asia Europe Meeting process, ASEM.
These groupings individually make a unique contribution to regional cooperation. Together, they work in complementary ways to reinforce regional stability and prosperity.
ASEAN, the region's premier regional institution, has been central to Australia's strategic approach to the region. In 1973 Australia became ASEAN's first dialogue partner. Since then Australia's relationship with ASEAN has gone from strength to strength.
Annually I take part in the ASEAN-Australia Post Ministerial Conference and ASEAN Regional Forum.
The ASEAN Regional Forum, the ARF, is the region's principal multilateral security discussion and action forum.
At last year's ARF meeting, we discussed the key security issues for the region, including Afghanistan, Burma, Iran, and North Korea. We also discussed cooperation on counter-terrorism in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Jakarta.
Australia is a founding member of the East Asia Summit (EAS). The fourth East Asia Summit was held in Thailand in October last year.
The 16 EAS members represent almost half the world's population and account for 30 per cent of global GDP. Almost 60 per cent of Australia's goods and services trade is with EAS members.
The EAS has a broad mandate for cooperation in such areas as finance, climate change, education, environment, energy security and regional security.
Given the EAS is the most recent addition to regional architecture, Australia is strongly committed to working with EAS partners to develop a substantive and comprehensive agenda. A key focus for Australia in the EAS has been greater regional financial cooperation and integration.
The Government is committed to enhancing Australia's engagement in South Asia through participation in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. In April this year Australia will participate for the first time as an observer at the SAARC Summit in Bhutan.
APEC is the pre-eminent regional forum for Australia's economic engagement with Asia and the Pacific and a driving force for open trade and investment, structural reform and human security in our region.
APEC's overarching agenda of regional economic integration is more important than ever. By connecting our economies more closely, we can help strengthen each other against external economic shocks, and position ourselves for a sustainable recovery once the global economy rebounds.
Asia Pacific Community
As valuable as all of the existing organisations and regional groupings I've mentioned continue to be, we need to closely examine the regional architecture and consider how it might best be developed to serve the region's interests into the first quarter of this century and beyond.
None of the groupings in the current architecture is comprehensive in membership, scope or purpose. India is not a part of APEC. The United States is not part of the EAS.
More importantly, there is as yet no leaders-level meeting where all of the key regional leaders can gather to discuss the full array of both trade and investment issues as well as political, security and strategic issues confronting the region.
An Asia-Pacific community would bring together all major regional countries in a single forum at Leaders' level with a view to enhancing cooperation on economic, political, security and strategic issues.
Such a community could encourage further economic and financial integration. It could foster a culture of deeper collaboration and transparency in security matters. It could drive cooperation on the range of transnational challenges.
This Asia-Pacific community would be fully consistent with Australia's commitment of comprehensive engagement with the Asia-Pacific region. It is not about supplanting or diminishing the roles of existing regional groupings, especially the centrality of ASEAN. This community concept might emerge from the existing architecture, just as the ARF and the EAS have emerged from ASEAN itself.
Conclusion
I thank Casa Asia and the Royal Elcano Institute for providing me with this opportunity to speak to you today.
One of the objectives of the 2009 Australia-Spain Joint Action Plan is to exchange "information and perspectives on developments in Asia." I hope my comments today contribute to this discussion.
In this and other fields, there exists a wealth of opportunities for Australia and Spain to strengthen our cooperation.
As modern democracies and market economies, Australia and Spain share a common commitment to promoting strong and effective global institutions, and supporting a prosperous, peaceful, secure future.
Australia warmly welcomes its growing partnership with Spain in pursuit of these goals, both bilaterally and as a European Union partner.
Media inquiries
- Minister's Office: (02) 6277 7500
- Departmental Media Liaison: (02) 6261 1555