With ASEAN underway in Melbourne today, the Australian government—this year’s hosts—is determined to keep the focus on trade and economic development, and not on Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
That’s despite revelations last week that a former politician had conspired with foreign agents—later confirmed to report to the CCP—and “sold out” the nation while still in office.
Further, it follows the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr telling the Australian Parliament that he would not allow “any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory,” in a thinly veiled reference to his country’s dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea.
While China is not a formal member country, it exerts considerable influence over some countries involved in ASEAN, which has forced Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong to try to keep talks relentlessly focused on trade in the hope of producing a positive outcome.
Arms Race Concerns
That comes against a backdrop of concerns expressed by Indonesia and Malaysia that Australia’s investment of billions of dollars in nuclear-powered submarines, as part of AUKUS, is potentially contributing to an arms race in the wider Asia Pacific.Mr. Albanese told ABC that “the big focus” would be on furthering common interests and fostering regional prosperity as Australia attempts to demonstrate its commitment to the well-being of the Southeast Asian region.
“Primarily what it will be about is how we work as a region to promote jobs and promote economic opportunity, that’s the big focus that we have,” he said.
“Security is always a part of that, but ASEAN nations represent Australia’s second-largest trading partner.
“We’ve got more than a million Australians here that have heritage from the Philippines, or Indonesia, from Vietnam, from one of these countries and we think it’s a real opportunity to come together to discuss our common interests and to discuss investment in the region to benefit our economy.
Foreign Minister Warns of ‘Destabilising’ Actions in the Region
However, Ms. Wong took a more direct line in her address to the conference, saying the region faced “confronting circumstances,” without naming Beijing or referring to the spying incident.“We see claims and actions that are inconsistent with international law, particularly with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Senator Wong said.
Previously, she had announced $64 million ($41.8 million) in funding for regional maritime security. While she did not specify which countries would receive the money, she said Australia “welcomed efforts” by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines to “delimit their maritime boundaries.”
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam all claim parts of the South China Sea, which Beijing insists it owns almost entirely.
“What happens in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, in the Mekong subregion, across the Indo-Pacific, affects us all,” Ms. Wong said in her speech. “We face destabilising provocative and coercive actions including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air and militarisation of disputed features.
“We all have a responsibility to shape the region we want, the region we want to share—peaceful, stable, and prosperous. A region in balance where each country can pursue its own aspirations where no country dominates and no country is dominated.
“We know that a major conflict in our region would be devastating to our communities and economies, as the terrible conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine have shown,” Senator Wong said.
