Institute for Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia Kuala Lumpur

  • Speech, check against delivery
10 July 2025

Selamat pagi.

Thank you all for being here to listen to the address, and I want to start by thanking our generous hosts from the Institute for Strategic and International Studies, and particularly to the Chairman, Professor Faiz.

Three years ago, I had the privilege of arriving in Kuala Lumpur as Australia's Foreign Minister.

I spoke here before travelling on to Kota Kinabalu, where I spent the first eight years of my life.

I went to visit the final resting place of my Poh-Poh. I spoke about her on that visit – her strength, her determination.

I also spoke with you about her son, Francis Wong, my father.

It was not so long after that visit to Kota Kinabalu – the first time I had visited there without my dad – that I lost my beloved father.

And I miss him all the time, and particularly when I am back in Malaysia, surrounded by the sounds, aromas and street stalls of my childhood.

But it is in his honour, and his memory, that I am so privileged to return today to Malaysia, re-elected as Australia's Foreign Minister.

When I gave my first speech in Southeast Asia, here in KL, I had set a task of visiting every Pacific Islands Forum member and all of the countries of ASEAN, other than Myanmar, in my first year as Foreign Minister.

It was a statement of intent – one that I am here to build on.

I am back in Southeast Asia with a mandate from the Australian people to continue our work together, representing the most diverse Parliament Australia has ever seen.

In our election, Australians elected MPs with heritage from Malaysia like me, from Laos, from Singapore, from Vietnam and across our region. MPs, Members of Parliament from so many faiths and backgrounds.

I know that Malaysians understand the strength that comes from Australia's new Parliament.

And that to represent a modern multicultural nation, you must reflect that modern multicultural nation.

It is a source of great power that Australians can see ourselves reflected in the world, and the world can see itself reflected in Australia.

Look at me – the very first Malaysian Chinese Australian Foreign Minister of Australia.

Back here in Malaysia, having delivered on what I promised three years ago – for Australia to be more focused on Southeast Asia and better equipped to engage with our region.

Having modernised our relationships; and having told a different story about today's Australia, and our role in the region.

And I'm so pleased friends that we have today begun the next chapter.

Our work together comes against a backdrop of challenges on a scale that exceeds expectations.

But we also see opportunities – here in the Indo-Pacific, the most dynamic region in the world.

And I am confident in our region's ability to meet these challenges.

And I'm confident in our ability to work together and protect our security, our stability, and our prosperity.

We know that we must shape the region we want.

A region that is open and peaceful.

And we know to do this will demand an unprecedented application of our national power, working across all arms of statecraft.

For Australia, we will keep prioritising this region, the Indo-Pacific, where our interests are most at stake.

We will keep investing not only in our traditional relationships but also in a more diverse set of partnerships.

We will keep working to uphold the international rules and norms that underpin our prosperity.

This is Australia's objective, and it is our intent.

To prioritise our region, our relationships, and the rules that protect us – so we can uphold our values and deliver on our interests.

And, that is why I'm here in KL (Kuala Lumpur), to take part in the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meetings and the ASEAN Regional Forum. To find collective solutions to our toughest shared challenges.

Just last week I was in Washington at the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting, discussing how best to contribute to stability in our region with my counterparts from the United States, Japan and India.

All four nations are comprehensive strategic partners of ASEAN.

Australia and the United States are old friends and allies and have supported each other in war and peace for over a century.

We are also two sovereign, independent countries with our own ways of doing things – as has been the case over nearly three quarters of a century of our great Alliance.

We also know that the Trump Administration envisages a different role for the United States.

 

And it's always been true that two countries can be the strongest of allies without agreeing on every single element of policy.

Secretary Rubio made clear to me that we are in complete agreement on the importance of the peace, stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific and for our peoples.

The United States' presence in our region remains critical to the Indo-Pacific's strategic stability and reinforces the ability of all its countries to make choices in their own sovereign interests.

And as a great power, China can also wield its strength in a way that contributes to its security and economic resilience.

China's size and weight make it central to solving global challenges – from climate change to global public health, from international trade to the energy transition.

China continues to assert its strategic influence and project its military power further into our region.

And we have seen the worrying pace of China's nuclear and conventional military buildup without the transparency that the region expects.

I have always said that Australia takes the world as it is and we seek to shape it for the better.

And that is why we are realistic about China's objectives in changing the regional balance of power – and it is clear in China's public political discourse.

And this realism also informs how we have stabilised our relationship with China and how we have strengthened our partnerships with the rest of the region.

None of us, including the United States, seeks military confrontation with China - in the South China Sea, the East China Sea or across the Taiwan Strait. 

What we do seek is a balance of power, where no country dominates and no country is dominated.

There are some who want to define Australia's security simply in terms of what China does or the United States does in the region. Or even more simply define Australia by our traditional allies and partners alone.

Well, this has never sat well with me.

Not because those traditional and essential relationships aren't of crucial importance to Australia – they absolutely are.

And our alliances with the United States and with New Zealand, and our close partnerships with Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe all make Australia stronger and safer.

But our geography and our history mean that has never been our whole story, and it is certainly not today.

We take our own approach to our relationships, the rules and to the region that we share.

Australia still believes in the logic of the post-war economic order, which continues to enable development and growth through openness.

And today, as then, economic integration still provides a critical incentive for peace as regional economies share the benefits of prosperity.

So, we are not naïve about the headwinds blowing in global trade, or the risks of economic interdependence creating vulnerability as well as strength.

But economic security doesn't have to be code for putting up walls. It is about making the right investments, with the right partners, at the right time.

And it is about injecting new energy into regionalism.

Australia and Malaysia have been key architects of regional trade agreements – including the CPTPP, RCEP and AANZFTA, the worst acronym of any trade agreement, and we also have our bilateral Free Trade Agreement.

We both know that our national interests lie in being at every table where economic integration in Asia is being discussed.

And while we share global concerns about protectionism and interventionism, the queues of those who seek to join us in RCEP and CPTPP tell a different story.

And we want to work more closely with ASEAN to reform and strengthen the World Trade Organization, because these are the rules we depend on.

This region knows this well.

The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific and ASEAN Maritime Outlook both highlight key principles to guide the region's approach to the maritime domain.

The rule of law, the peaceful settlement of disputes and the renunciation of the threat or use of force.

For Australia and for Southeast Asia, the maritime domain is the heart of our security and our prosperity.

So we are an active member of ASEAN's Defence architecture, including through the ADMM-Plus and Experts' Working Group on Maritime Security.

And we have committed over $60 million to our Southeast Asia Maritime Partnerships, expanding our maritime cooperation.

My hometown Kota Kinabalu is on the edge of the South China Sea.

So from a very young age I learnt about how navigators and traders connected Borneo and the Malay peninsula to countries across the world bringing goods, people and ideas into Southeast Asia, forging one of the most dynamic areas in our region.

But the same outlook is a powerful reminder of the central importance of rules to our region's character.

Respect for the Law of the Sea has never been more important to our shared economic security and to our prosperity.

And even as the world order is fundamentally changing, and because it is changing, Australia stands for rules and institutions.

We believe they are fundamental to the character of our region.

Which is why we will continue to register our concerns about Chinese vessels engaging in destabilising and dangerous conduct in the South China Sea, including towards Philippine and Vietnamese vessels.

And it's why I was so pleased to launch the ANCORS Southeast Asia Maritime Institute here at the end of last year.

As Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew said, he may not have been speaking about the maritime domain, but he certainly warned against a world where "big fish eat small fish and small fish eat shrimps" – I can imagine my father saying that.

Well, that's not what we want. We don't want might over multilateralism.

We don't want rule by power alone, with no reference at all to law.

Forcing outcomes by economic coercion or military muscle, rather than on the level playing field that we are building together.

And for a country like Australia, we know we are made stronger by what we do together.

This is a central part of how I think about ASEAN centrality.

See, ASEAN has a unique voice. By its words and its deeds, it can build norms, and it can set expectations. For powers great and small.

So, friends, we may be bound by the geography that fate has chosen for us, but we are strengthened by the partnership that we choose for ourselves.

And that partnership means leaning in, not leaving it to others.

So, we proudly take forward a tradition of believing Australia must find its security in Asia, not from Asia.

As my dear friend and our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said at the Shangri-La Dialogue this collective responsibility was how we could uphold our sovereignty, enjoy freedom of action, ensure policy independence.

It is how we can make our choices free of external pressure or duress.

And how we pursue opportunities for our people without fear of coercion or retribution.

Prime Minister Anwar has reminded us all earlier this year that our region has long depended on openness to goods, capital, ideas and people.

From the trade routes of the Malaccan Sultanate, Majapahit empires, and the Kingdoms across Southeast Asia to the data centres of today.

Like Airtrunk in Johor and the one being built by Australian NextDC, investing $4 billion in Malaysia. We are the fourth largest tech investor in your country.

Australia has opened up our economy to the region and the world long ago.

In fact, it was Labor governments that deregulated capital and exchange rate markets in Australia. My predecessors dismantled tariff barriers.

And I can assure you today this will not change.

Our markets will remain open to you. We will stand by our trade agreements, and we will make them even stronger – like our upgrade of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.

And this is in our interests as much as yours. Together, the economies of ASEAN are Australia's second-largest trading partner.

When it comes to Southeast Asia, Australia remains fully invested, implementing over half a billion dollars in initiatives announced at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit last year – working together on issues that matter to both of us.

Through Australia's Southeast Asia Economic Strategy, we look to build even more opportunity and prosperity together – in energy security, climate resilience, education and beyond.

Australian businesses supported by Austrade recorded more than $1 billion in trade outcomes across Southeast Asia last year, a 45% increase on previous years.

Through our new $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility, we have made an initial commitment to invest $75 million in Singapore's Financing Asia's Transition Partnership (FAST-P).

We want to support and continue to support your clean energy shift – by bridging infrastructure gaps and building resilient supply chains.

And our investments and our engagement will keep prioritising climate change and supporting the clean energy transition in the region as a shared priority.

That's why Australian Development Investments is mobilising private capital for the Southeast Asia Clean Energy Fund II and the KINETIK FUND for Green Infrastructure in Indonesia.

And it's why our energy package with ASEAN is backing in the ASEAN Power Grid to enable cross-border power trading and enhance energy security and affordability.

Through the ADB (Asian Development Bank), Export Finance Australia is supporting battery energy storage construction that will help double Thailand's wind and solar capacity.

And we are also contributing to the skills and education uplift that's required to meet these industries of the future.

The picture has changed so much since my father, a young Malaysian man, came to Australia on a Colombo Plan scholarship to study architecture at the University of Adelaide.

Over the last 20 years, some 700,000 students from Southeast Asia have benefited from a world-class education in Australia.

And Southeast Asia now accounts for around one-fifth of all international students studying in our country.

These are the ways in which Australia is listening to what matters to ASEAN and delivering on our shared priorities.

I can say to you that Australia will remain consistent in this approach. We will be a reliable partner on whom you can count.

We know that there is uncertainty in development funding, and we know the impact of global aid cuts is not yet entirely known.

But at a time of disruption, Australia is directing our $1.28 billion development program in Southeast Asia to meet your highest needs.

This is not only because our nations and peoples all benefit from the peace, stability and security we build together.

It is not only because we all benefit as each of us succeeds and thrives.

It is because we believe as partners and neighbours, that we have a responsibility to contribute to a more equitable future for our region.

And it is a responsibility that the Government, our Government will not abandon.

We now dedicate 75 cents of every Australian development dollar to our region, the Indo-Pacific.

And our response to others reducing their funding has been to pivot and reprioritise, ensuring we respond to the most acute needs.

For example, in Timor-Leste, we have responded to unexpected funding gaps to ensure that vaccination, school food programs and gender equality initiatives can continue.

We have moved to ensure national immunisation programs in Laos and Vietnam can continue. And we're working with the Government of Indonesia to provide free meals to children and pregnant women.

In the Philippines, we have pivoted funding to address gender-based violence, supporting essential sexual and reproductive health services and combatting the rise of HIV.  

We are also ensuring that our development program meets the urgent needs created by the changing climate and pressure in the global economy.

We have $126 million Climate Catalyst Window for Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Pacific. The logic of that is to unlock private sector investment in clean energy, adaptation, and resilience solutions.

And our new PROGRESS initiative ($45 million 2025-2030) will build partnership with the Philippines to promote inclusive and resilient economic growth through private sector development and targeted economic reforms.

In Indonesia, a new phase of the $277 million Prospera partnership will support sustainable economic transformation.

My message today to you is clear – we are not going anywhere, and Australia is here for the long haul.

My friends, the world has not become any easier in the three years that I have been Foreign Minister.

I suspect you all know that too well.

Emerging threats are compounding those we already face, from the climate crisis to cyber attacks, from nuclear proliferation and disinformation, to the flouting of laws and aggressive conduct at sea.

The costs of conflict are front of mind for all of us.

Australia remains resolute in our opposition to Russia's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, a flagrant violation of the UN Charter by a permanent member of the security council.

And the ongoing violence and devastating earthquake in Myanmar has only made the protracted crisis more acute for the Rohingya and the people of Myanmar.

Since 2017, Australia has committed $1.26 billion in humanitarian assistance for the Rohingyas, their host communities in Bangladesh and the people of Myanmar. It is our single biggest humanitarian spend.

In Myanmar we sent 100 pallets of humanitarian supplies following the earthquake and I announced additional funding to international organisations to provide immediate humanitarian relief. I can announce that as of today that amount has increased to over $16 million.

We have also committed over $110 million in lifesaving assistance for Gaza and Lebanon.

We reiterate the call of the international community on Israel to let humanitarian assistance flow unhindered to those who need it the most.

Just as we reiterate our condemnation of Hamas' terrorism and the continued holding of hostages.

But as Australia has consistently said innocent Palestinians cannot pay the price for defeating Hamas.

While we welcome progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza, the starvation of children, and the ongoing devastation is unacceptable.

Last month, I joined partner countries in placing sanctions on two Israeli ministers for their role in human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Australia has consistently been part of the international call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the upholding of international law, including the protection of civilians, humanitarian access and the release of hostages.

And we remain steadfast that a two-state solution is the only pathway to secure an enduring peace for Israelis and for Palestinians.

And as you would know in so many conflicts, civilians, journalists and aid workers are paying the price.

That is why Australia has convened a group of ministers to pursue a new Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel, and we are pleased Indonesia is a founding member of this.

That Declaration will demonstrate the unity of the international community and its commitment to protect aid workers and to channel that commitment into action – in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan, and in all current and future conflicts.

But I want to turn now to an issue that I am very passionate about, and that I think is of great relevance to our time and that is conflict prevention.

Friends, this region knows too well the cost of conflict and the value of peace.

This region knows well the risks inherent in great power competition.

And we know we all must play our part in assuring the peace.

You see this is the insight at the heart of ASEAN – as the Charter declares – "to maintain and enhance peace, security and stability and further strengthen peace -oriented values in the region".

The ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) reflects the same imperative – that we all have a role in preventing conflict.

As great power competition intensifies, with the rising risk of escalation and miscalculation, the conflict prevention project is even more critical.

And we cannot wait – as Huong Le Thu, Rory Medcalf and Bec Strating say in their publication on conflict prevention to be released this week: if conflict prevention only becomes a priority when military escalation is plainly imminent, then it will be too late.

I trust the discussion led by Huong and Rory following this speech will be fruitful.

Australia also recognises that the turbulence of these times demand that we do both more to reassure and also more to deter.

So, we work with our friends and partners, openly and transparently, so no potential aggressor thinks the pursuit of conflict is worth the risk.

How did Prime Minister Anwar put it? "We recognise that a measure of deterrence helps keep all parties honest."

Australia and Indonesia signed a historic Defence Cooperation Agreement last year, reflecting our shared commitment to supporting regional stability and agreed rules. And here in Malaysia, the Five Power Defence Arrangements have been a force for stability for many decades, with Ministers reaffirming their commitment to training together earlier this year.

We are working with the United States and the United Kingdom to deliver AUKUS, this is a transparent contribution to collective deterrence.

AUKUS partners are working with Japan to improve interoperability with Japan's maritime autonomous systems.

And we have signed a Peacekeeping Partnership arrangement to solidify our support for Vietnam's peacekeeping efforts.

Above all, our objective is to prevent conflict, preserve peace and maintain the agency of all countries in our region.

Before I finish, I want to say thank you. It is a true honour the way I have been welcomed back to Southeast Asia over the last three years.

Thank you for inviting me into your institutions, into your classrooms, into your hawker centres, and into your businesses.

Thank you for making it as easy to order a nasi lemak in Adelaide as a flat white in KL.

I am so lucky to always feel so at home.

Look at how far our relationships have come. Look at how far we have come, despite all the challenges we face.

You understand in the face of many difficulties that countries have an urge to look inwards.

It is a natural instinct to retreat in the face of pretty scary and challenging strategic circumstances.

But we can make a different choice, together. And we must.

Australia makes a different choice.

And it is not just Australia.

President Prabowo said in May, "For five decades, ASEAN has stood as a pillar of peace, stability, and prosperity in Southeast Asia…Let us not always underestimate our strength and our power."

I say again, let us not underestimate our strength and our power.

This moment in our history is an opportunity for Australia and Southeast Asia.

To recognise that the stability of our region can only be secured through collective responsibility.

That we must build the region we want, not just accept the region we face.

And we do this by integrating our economies further, we do this by building our resilience.

We do this by taking forward our defence and security cooperation.

We do this by growing our development partnerships and by investing more in our efforts to prevent conflict.

Because none of our nations can achieve the future we want on our own.

So, we count on each other. To write the next chapters in the story of our partnership.

Chapters we will write together.

Thank you.

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