It is a great pleasure to be here at the AIIA.
To draw together the last three years that I have had the privilege of leading Australia’s foreign policy in the Albanese Labor Government, focusing on our priorities of the region, relationships and the rules.
And to look ahead, on resilience becoming an even more critical priority, as Australia builds our future in an ever less stable world.
I want to start with the historic events of the past week.
The conclusion of negotiations on a Treaty on Common Security with Indonesia is a volume in the story of our two nations – taking our cooperation to a higher level, acting together to secure peace and stability for our nations and the region.
It is the biggest step in the strengthening of our partnership since the Soeharto-Keating Agreement on Maintaining Security.
It reflects our close friendship, deep trust and shared aspiration.
This has been Labor’s approach to Indonesia. Labor has always understood that Australia’s future is in our region.
From the very beginning, when Chifley and Evatt provided such crucial support to Indonesian independence, to Whitlam announcing his commitment to improving relations with Indonesia at his campaign launch in 1972.
It was the next Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who said in Jakarta:
“To neglect any opportunity to remove misunderstandings and to strengthen the foundations of agreement would be a dereliction of our duty to both our peoples and a denial of their common destiny in the region, which binds us together indissolubly as neighbours forever.”
Bound together, as neighbours – a sentiment celebrated by Prime Minister Albanese on his first bilateral visit three years ago.
The Prime Minister spoke of the sea routes and trade between the people of Makassar and the First Nations people of northern Australia.
Labor’s foreign policy may begin with our understanding of the future we share with our region…
…But for centuries, the peoples of our lands have understood our shared destinies and have understood the value of cooperation.
The Yolngu people in Arnhem Land built their dugout canoes using the metal axes of Indonesian fishermen.
And the sails of Makassan vessels are immortalised in the art of the Yolngu people.
These connections predate us all, and strike an even more poignant note this week, as our agreement marks a new era.
I start with Indonesia because it illustrates the approach we take to our region.
We can all see our world is becoming less certain and less stable. More people are displaced. More people are hungry. There is more conflict – in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere.
Australia will always make our contribution, as part of multilateral efforts to protect civilians and uphold international law – because living in peace shouldn’t be contingent on where you were born.
Having said that, our overriding responsibility as a middle power of the Indo-Pacific is to support peace, stability and prosperity in this region.
The Indo-Pacific is where the world’s future is most being shaped.
It is where we have the most on the line.
It is where we can have the most effect.
From our first day in office, when the Prime Minister and I flew to Japan to meet with the Quad, from my first trip to the Pacific Islands Forum and the Prime Minister’s first bilateral visit to Indonesia, the region has been our focus.
After what some might call a mixed decade, we had a pretty big job to do.
We needed to reassure the region of our commitment - our intent.
In my first year as Foreign Minister, I travelled to every Pacific Islands Forum member and all the countries of ASEAN, other than Myanmar.
The Prime Minister has always said that we are not here to occupy the space.
That goes for our foreign policy. That goes for Australia in our region.
We don’t just live here.
We aren’t just residents.
We are architects.
And for the past three and a half years we have been building Australia’s future in our region.
We build understanding, from what Anthony Albanese called the foundation of a relationship of equals.
We build relationships. We build the inclusive infrastructure and economic opportunities to transform lives, foster stability and grow prosperity.
We build our shared regional capacity to defend and secure our sovereignty.
Every relationship Australia has in this region has been strengthened under our Government.
Every one.
And it pays to look at a map to picture the architecture I am about to describe.
Because we have agreed groundbreaking treaties with four countries, upgraded or enhanced partnerships with six and made progress on agreements with another four.
We have concluded negotiations on our new treaty with Indonesia.
We have the Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea, transforming our nearest neighbour to our newest ally.
We have the Nauru-Australia Treaty and the landmark Falepili Union with Tuvalu.
We have progress towards new agreements with Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.
We have stabilised relations with China, without compromising on our interests.
And we have upgraded our relationships with Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Brunei, enhanced our relationship with Singapore and agreed to strengthen our arrangements with India.
None of this was thinkable in 2021.
Yet the Albanese Government has actively pursued landmark agreements that come together to safeguard the region that we want.
At every step, working in partnership with the region, and through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum, which underpin our collective security and prosperity.
We know we are made stronger by what we do together.
Now, let me be clear. I said that we have advanced every relationship we have in our region.
But that doesn’t mean that our strategic environment is getting any easier.
The change in the regional landscape is permanent.
The disruption – the contest– is permanent.
China will continue trying to reshape the region according to its own interests.
Russia, Iran and North Korea will continue to sabotage and destabilise.
With so much activity and contest, things may not go Australia's way every time.
But we will keep pressing our national interest in the contest every day.
We do that bilaterally, including with our upgraded ties around the region, but also through regionalism.
Regionalism is one of the most effective ways for smaller and medium countries to counter power asymmetries.
We see this every day in the power and weight that ASEAN and the PIF carry when they speak with one voice.
Both have the capacity to build norms and set expectations – for nations large and small.
This architecture of groundbreaking agreements secures Australia in our region.
And they are premised on Australia’s ability to meet nations where they are at, drawing on all elements of our national power.
You see this in South and Southeast Asia, where we know that there is a need for more investment, goods and services to boost economic development and support the transition to clean energy.
It's in Australia's economic and strategic interests to respond to these priorities.
And it offers the assurance that comes with knowing that their success is our success; to create the shared value that fosters peace and stability.
This is why we have supported $1.2 billion in new Australian investment through our Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.
And it is why we launched an A New Economic Roadmap for India, with a new Trade and Investment Accelerator Fund to help unlock new commercial opportunities, while continuing to negotiate an upgraded economic agreement.
Our new $2 billion Southeast Asia Infrastructure Financing Facility is kickstarting Australian investments, including to create immediate exposure for 15 Australian super funds and supporting key projects in renewable energy, telecommunications and infrastructure.
It is a sign of early success that one in four transactions supported by Export Finance Australia are now in Southeast Asia.
And beyond trade and investment, we are also drawing on the expertise of CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and other Australian institutions to support energy system planning, resilient transport infrastructure and the clean energy transition in the region.
We are bringing together Timor-Leste, the Northern Territory Government and indigenous land holders to help Timor improve access to power in remote communities.
And in similar ways in the Pacific, we are listening, consulting and responding to Pacific priorities in the Pacific way – Australia is intent on being a good neighbour and one that deals with partners with respect.
I can’t emphasise enough how important this has been in the Pacific – where the previous government’s disregard of climate science and disrespect for the Pacific family is still raised with me today.
The Albanese Government has invested in rebuilding relationships and restoring trust among the Pacific family – so that we can again be a partner of choice.
Such as through the Cyber RAPID response program, which has helped restore critical services in the wake of massive cyber-attacks, or through DFAT and the ADF humanitarian operations responding to natural disasters.
Or the way we are addressing food insecurity, with ACIAR enabling Australia to share our ability to grow food in changing climates and take our leadership in agricultural innovation global.
Being a part of the solution on climate change is also central to our credibility in the Pacific – through our strong domestic commitments, rejoining the Green Climate Fund and investing in the Pacific Resilience Facility.
And the driver for Australia seeking to host COP with the Pacific family was always to bring the world's attention to the impacts of climate change in our region and elevate Pacific voices for global action on climate.
All our Pacific engagement prioritises Pacific leadership.
That is how we have backed the Pacific Policing Initiative and established the Pacific Response Group, complementing other arrangements like Australia's Status of Forces Agreement with Fiji and enhanced maritime security cooperation.
Australia is committed to remaining a reliable partner to the Pacific and our region, despite the global reduction in development assistance.
The full impact of dramatic aid reductions around the world is only just starting to be felt.
Australia is responding to this challenge by reprioritising our development investments to bolster support to our region.
We now dedicate 75 cents of every Australian development dollar to the Indo-Pacific.
We are prioritising targeted, high-impact investments that build resilience and back local solutions, making the region more secure and stable.
We also prioritise those in the most need – such as our role as a leading contributor to humanitarian crises and displaced Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
This week I will travel to India, one of our most consequential partners in building our collective security and prosperity. I am told this will be my 26th meeting with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar.
Australia has sought to redefine our relationships with our region. Listening, not imposing. Consulting, not controlling.
And through identifying shared challenges, designing solutions together, and using all of our arms of national power, we have found ways to build common ground.
This has been our approach in our immediate region and to our crucial relationships across the globe.
The United States is our closest ally, and our principal economic and strategic partner.
The Indo-Pacific would not have enjoyed long periods of stability and prosperity without the United States and its security guarantee to the region, as well as its leading role as an investor.
A year ago, I said that Australians should be confident in our ability to navigate changes that were foreshadowed by the new US administration.
And our confidence has been reaffirmed.
Whether you consider our approach to our AUKUS partnership, the two Quad Foreign Ministers’ meetings I have attended, or the landmark bilateral framework on critical minerals and rare earths signed by the Prime Minister and the President last month, we have continued to identify common ground and pursue our shared interests.
Some wanted us to sprint towards a deal at any cost with the United States; but we know better than to bargain away what matters to Australians.
And to those who had been cheering for the Government to fail, I would simply say that it is possible to be an effective Opposition while backing the national interest.
American leadership in our region remains indispensable – it is the great builder of alliances and networks, essential for balance in a multipolar region.
But we know that the world we want today - and the world that we want our children to inherit - is not only a matter for the great powers.
And this is why middle powers are making purposeful efforts to contribute to a favourable balance – so no country dominates, and no country is dominated.
I have described this as amplified middle power diplomacy – pursuing new alignments to better pursue our national interests, while evolving traditional ideas of like-mindedness.
And what I mean is the efforts of middle powers to create more common ground, and to transform that into shared opportunities.
I often hear this idea of ‘natural partners’, or that the circumstances that middle powers face are pushing countries together.
But finding common ground and growing alignment are not passive concepts, nor are they predetermined.
Middle powers must be active, and ambitious.
Deliberately and patiently working to understand the interests of the person, or the government, sitting opposite you.
Working to understand how these interests intersect and connect with our own.
And then – the hard part begins. Building bridges. Making tangible offers. Tending fields of cooperation and supporting them with vision and resources.
Maximising where we can act together, to protect and advance our interests.
Working for our interests in an ever-more contested world – and as middle powers seek strategic balance in a multipolar world.
And as the Prime Minister described it, by breaking new ground with old friends.
Look at the first Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network field training exercise this year, strengthening our shared airlift capacity and collective logistics strengths to respond to natural disasters more rapidly and efficiently.
Or the way in which we have cooperated with the United Kingdom, Canada and France to build momentum for peace by recognising Palestine, or partnered with Jordan and Indonesia on humanitarian assistance and reform in Gaza.
We have modernised our relationship with the United Kingdom, including through a bilateral AUKUS treaty, and are pursuing new arrangements with the European Union.
And our defence, security and trade relationships with Japan, the Republic of Korea and India have reached unprecedented levels.
Australia cannot afford to stand still while tectonic plates are shifting around us – because in these circumstances, that would mean going backwards.
So we will not stand still. We will continue to work with purpose and energy to protect and promote Australia’s interests.
This is also the context to understand our efforts to stabilise our relationship with China, including to see all impediments on Australian exports lifted, without compromising on our interests.
China is our largest trading partner, the world’s second-largest economy and a key player on climate action.
But the lessons from that period are also why the Albanese Government has prioritised diversification in our trade strategy.
We still see economic integration as providing a critical incentive for peace, while managing potential vulnerabilities.
Similarly, we have prioritised dialogue with China at every level, including channels of communication between our militaries.
And we use these channels to advocate for conflict prevention, and to communicate that we do not tolerate any unsafe or unprofessional conduct directed at our ADF.
My point here is that we should not be distracted by any false binary around this relationship – any claim that safeguarding our sovereignty is somehow mutually exclusive with productive economic ties.
Our relationship is more complex than that. Our region is more complex than that.
What we want is a relationship that allows us to cooperate and engage with China, while prosecuting our national interests and building security and prosperity in our region.
Because we know that China will continue to be a major influence on our region, as well as on the multilateral system, which matters so much to Australia.
The multilateral system matters to us because international rules and norms deter conflict, enable free trade, and underpin our security and prosperity.
Even as longstanding institutions and rules are undermined and broken, the system still sets expectations for behaviour, and provides organising principles for cooperation.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine demonstrates what is at stake in standing up to aggressors – an assault on sovereignty that we cannot allow to set a successful precedent.
Supporting the rules is not merely a defensive interest that we have.
The rules are also a vital avenue for Australia to prosecute what matters to us.
You can consider how Australia has worked to exercise our rights under international law, to operate in the South China Sea or to transit the Taiwan Strait.
Or how we have led the Declaration on the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, standing with more than 100 countries to say that we must protect those who risk everything to help others during conflict.
Australia is continuing to negotiate free trade agreements, enable regional integration through APEC and as chair of the CPTPP, and support reform of the World Trade Organization.
We are supporting capacity development in the Indian Ocean on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and have led efforts to set up the landmark High Seas Treaty.
We are sanctioning North Korean entities for funding its illegal weapons programs. We are urging progress on the Fissile Material Cut off Treaty.
My point is that these rules matter, not just to keep us safe.
They do not only defend and deter, but they are an avenue to promote and persuade.
Despite the importance of these rules and norms, we know that they have not evolved to keep pace with new and emerging threats.
Many of the benefits of modernisation have the potential to be weaponised, and wielded as measures short of war that threaten our region and our democracy.
Disinformation, interference, transnational repression, cyberattacks and the unregulated use of AI are just some of the modern challenges placing greater pressure on societies like Australia.
We are witness to a collapse of truth altogether. False voices. Fabricated images. Manufactured narratives.
Algorithms amplifying fiction masquerading as fact.
And we know that others seek to influence our democracy and tear at the fabric of our cohesion – using these tools and more. Trust in institutions is declining and intolerance is growing.
At the same time, our economic security must evolve as some states weaponise trade and undermine supply chains.
In the face of these challenges, resilience is a priority domain for government, and for a foreign minister – along with the region, relationships and the rules.
The strength of our democracy and the trust in our institutions are central to navigating a world that is more divided, more contested and more insecure.
So is our economic strength – to influence, to engage, and to resource the strategic action that we need to take – including the investments in military capability to underwrite our diplomatic efforts.
Our whole of nation efforts to build resilience must continue at pace.
We must protect our institutions against external and internal pressures, and I want to particularly commend the efforts of Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce and the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce.
We must maintain our social cohesion while we navigate divergent views – understanding that our diversity strengthens us at home and also enables us to find common ground with so much of the world.
We must protect our young people from the pervasive pull of social algorithms, which is why the Albanese government has legislated to delay access to social media until the age of 16.
We must find ways to regulate and build trust and confidence in AI at home and multilaterally, ensuring AI adoption proceeds in a safe, secure and responsible way.
We must combat interference and espionage and build our cyber security, including by working with partners to attribute malicious cyber behaviour to state-linked actors.
We must diversify our economy and diversify our economic relationships. Our economic security demands not just that we expand who we export and sell to, but what we make, to become more resilient and more productive.
This is a key purpose of the Albanese Government’s Future Made in Australia and our critical minerals strategies.
We must support resilient societies in our region, which is why our economic and diplomatic engagement also prioritises gender equality, civil society, governance and human rights.
And we must ensure a deeper understanding of the world, the strategic context and the choices we have, and their implications – in our parliament, our civic institutions, our business community and our people.
This is why I have sponsored the National Security College to provide national security training to parliamentarians from all parties.
We have reformed the New Colombo Plan, to support young Australians to build their Asia capability.
And why I am continuing work with my colleagues – and I want to particularly mention Tim Watts who is here tonight, and working with Jason Clare – to arrest and reverse the dire trends on Asian language learning and other capability in Australia.
All of these efforts are so we can defend and sustain our political institutions, critical infrastructure and social cohesion against measures short of war, while preventing conflict.
Our domestic resilience, including our economic strength and our multicultural democracy, contributes alongside our diplomatic efforts and our military capability to deterrence. This is how we raise the costs for those who would seek to coerce us.
Our guiding purpose for the past three years and our focus for the years ahead is to help build the region we want.
A region in balance, where sovereignty is respected.
A region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, where countries large and small have the freedom to decide their futures.
But what does that really mean? I think the best way to illustrate this concern is through a counterfactual.
Without our efforts and the efforts of our partners, the world will be more deferential to authoritarians.
Without these efforts, the norms that middle powers rely on will be replaced by a new normal.
Where coercion and interference override sovereignty, where discourse is overwhelmed by disinformation and cyberattacks.
Where diplomacy and dialogue are supplanted by threats and intimidation.
Where aggressors may think conflict is worth the risk.
Without our shared efforts, the cumulative toll on our region would be a weaker, less cohesive, and less sovereign group of nations, without the collective security and prosperity that we seek.
All compounded by the impacts of climate change – including less food security and more instability and displacement.
It is a grim picture. But it is the picture of a future without our work to build something better.
And a reminder that these serious times require serious leadership from serious people – not backsliding that weakens Australia’s influence in the world.
I draw optimism in part from 3 May. Where the Australian people rejected fear and voted with confidence, for fairness, aspiration and opportunity.
This election was an affirmation of our institutions, our multicultural society and our place in our region – that bring us together as Australians.
This confidence in ourselves and this strength in our democracy can serve to deter anyone that seeks to undermine us.
And the more we can do to reassure and reinforce stability across our region, the more we remind the world of the peace and prosperity that we stand to lose.
This is what success looks like for me.
A stronger and more influential Australia.
Connected in our region and respected in the world.
Where we know who we are, what we want, and where we are going – together.