



Speech for





The Hon Alexander Downer MP

Minister for Foreign Affairs







The Inaugural Monash Asia Public Lecture



Australian Foreign Policy Today and Tomorrow











22 August 2007, Monash University, Melbourne  (Check Against Delivery)

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Introduction



Thank you Professor Marika Vicziany.



Professor Stephanie Fahey, distinguished guests ladies and

gentlemen …



It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to deliver the

inaugural Monash Asia Public Lecture on the topic of

“Australian foreign policy today and tomorrow”.



Monash University has made a remarkable contribution to

Australia’s connections with Asia over the past 46 years.  I want

to pay tribute to the many academics here at Monash who have

taught and continue to teach young Australians the languages,

history, culture, politics, economics and more of the diverse

countries of Asia.



And I want to pay tribute to Monash University’s pioneering

development of links with Asia.  Monash established the first

foreign university branch campus in Malaysia nearly ten years

ago - now a thriving campus of distinction in teaching and

research.



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Our relations with the countries of Asia are one part - an

important part, a key part - of our relationship with the outside

world.  But our relations with Asia do not take place in a

vacuum.



Australia has always had global interests.  We have been an

international trading nation since the earliest days of our history.

We have had and continue to maintain deep and enduring

relations with countries near and far.



And Australia has always been ready to stand up for what is

right in international politics.  We are prepared to stand up for

the values we believe in.



Australians have fought against aggression in two world wars.

We played our part in confronting totalitarianism during the

Cold War.  We are doing our part now in the struggle against

extremist terrorism.



During peace time we have strengthened relations with our

neighbours and friends.  We have made a significant

contribution to the international order.  We have helped small

countries gain their independence and build their government

institutions, and we have worked to share the benefits of

prosperity across the globe.

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The world has changed enormously since Australia’s federation

in 1901 but the fundamentals of international politics have not

changed.



We are sometimes told that in a borderless, globalised world

nation states no longer matter.  But I do not accept this idea.

Because when we face threats like transnational crime and

terrorism, strong nation states are more important than ever.

Only effective and robust states - I would argue democratic and

free liberal states - are equipped to meet the range of challenges

we face, and survive and thrive.



The importance of effective, robust states with strong

democratic foundations is a key lesson of history and one of the

themes I want to highlight today.



While my theme in this speech is “Australian foreign policy

today and tomorrow”, I think it is vital not only to look at the

present and the future, but also to look at the lessons we have

learned from the past.



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The rise of new powers



Stable relations between the major and emerging powers in the

Asia-Pacific region and beyond - such as we have now - are

crucial to Australia’s security and prosperity.  As China and

India continue their remarkable growth, strategic weight will

shift to Asia.  New powers are rising.



First, there is China.  The economic growth in China for the past

30 years has been stunning.  Hundreds of millions of people

have been lifted out of poverty.  Economic reforms unleashed

the entrepreneurial drive of the Chinese people.



At the same time, China’s Communist Party has transformed its

international outlook.  China does not seek to export revolution

to the world in the 21st century, it wants to export goods and it

wants a stable regional and global environment to do this.  Its

foreign policy reflects this.  China is becoming increasingly

active on the international political stage.



Less than 15 years ago the ASEAN Regional Forum - the Asian

region’s only meeting of foreign ministers dedicated to security

issues - held its first meeting.  China was a reluctant participant

in that first meeting.  Today, China is not only an active

participant in the ARF, it is actually seeking to shape its agenda.

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As China grows it needs resources to fuel its economy.  And this

drive for resources, particularly energy resources, is an

increasing influence on China’s foreign policy.



And as China emerges, it will need to shoulder the responsibility

of being a major power.  There are some positive signs.



For instance, without China’s involvement, efforts to resolve the

North Korean nuclear issue would not have come as far as they

have.  We will continue to work with China to encourage it to

take a responsible role.



India, too, is growing economically and is seeking more

influence in the world.  India has turned outwards after decades

of looking inwards.  India is now firmly focussed on pursuing its

national interest and prosperity and security for its people.  India

is beginning to contribute to the security of the world, for

instance by sending a humanitarian naval mission to assist

tsunami victims in Indonesia's Aceh Province in 2004.



The demand generated by India’s growing middle class is

helping power world economic growth.  India’s own economic

growth has been an impressive nine per cent per annum in recent

years.

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India’s enmeshment with global markets is encouraging it to

take the view that it has a stake in supporting and maintaining

the international order.  And India has proven that open,

democratic government is compatible with both political

stability and rapid economic development.



So in the 21st century, two of the world’s oldest civilisations are

two of its newest powers.  Both are engaging more with the

international community.  And both are seeking to regain what

they see as their rightful place among the leading nations of the

world.



The question for everyone else is: “How do we handle these two

giants?”



The answer for Australia is, in some ways, straightforward.  We

must continue to work to further build our bilateral relationships

with those two countries.



Our relationship with China has transformed over the past

decade.  The trading relationship has recorded incredible growth

- two-way merchandise trade grew from less than 8 billion

dollars in 1996/97 to 50 billion dollars in 2006/07.



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China will soon be our largest trading partner, although Japan

will remain our largest export market by far.



Our national leaders and government ministers meet frequently.



At the officials level we have a range of dialogues.  Australian

officials meet regularly with their Chinese counterparts to

discuss everything from the Pacific island countries to human

rights and regional security.  And we are negotiating a free trade

agreement with China.



Australia and China do not always agree on issues.  But we can

now discuss our differences.  There is a new depth and maturity

to our relationship.



We are adding new depth and elements to our relationship with

India all the time.  From a low base, our cooperation on issues

from counter terrorism to United Nations reform is growing.



And our economic relationship is booming.  Ten years ago

India’s share of our total international merchandise trade was

only around one per cent.  Now it is around three times that and

growing quickly.  India is our fastest growing major export

market.



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Both Australia and India have realised that we have a lot to offer

each other.  The more we cooperate on security and defence and

in trade and investment, the more important we become to each

other.



As new powers emerge, other major powers have a crucial role

to play.  How the United States and Japan deal with the

emerging powers is crucial for all of us in the Asia-Pacific

region.



The United States will remain for the foreseeable future the

world’s pre-eminent military and economic power.



Australia’s relationship with the United States has never been

stronger.  Our alliance with the United States remains the

bedrock of our security.  And the ties between us are deep.



The links we have to the United States are based on shared

values.  We are both liberal democracies and share a belief that

free markets are the best way to deliver prosperity.



And because we have the same ideas on these big questions, we

are natural allies.



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Australia’s close relationship with the United States gives us

additional weight in the region.  Our relationship with the

United States contributes to regional stability.  We want to see

the United States continue to be politically, strategically and

economically engaged in the Asia-Pacific region.



The United States has invested enormous effort in developing its

relationship with China in recent years.  China and the United

States both realise how much they depend on each other

economically.  I am convinced that both the United States and

China want a stable, mutually beneficial relationship.



The United States has been developing its relationship with

India too.  Most notably, the United States and Indian

governments have recently concluded negotiations on the text of

a civil nuclear cooperation agreement.



This deal - while yet to be ratified - would establish the

framework for civil nuclear cooperation between the two

countries.  It recognises India’s strong record of not allowing

nuclear technology to spread beyond its borders.  While India is

not a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, the US-India initiative will help to bring India more fully into the non-proliferation mainstream.  Under the initiative India has

committed to separate its civil and military nuclear facilities,

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and expand the application of International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) safeguards.



The other existing power that is of crucial importance,

particularly for Australia, is Japan.  Not only is it one of our

most important economic relationships, we have added new

depth to our strategic relationship in recent years.



We would like to see Japan taking a wider international

leadership role commensurate with its economic weight.  Japan

could play an important role by working alongside other key

powers to share the burden of sustaining and strengthening

world order.



That is why Australian and Japanese troops worked together in

Iraq.  And this year our Prime Ministers signed a Joint

Declaration on Security Cooperation to provide a basis for even

closer engagement across a wide range of areas.



I want to make the point that we have been able to build our

relationships with all of the major and emerging powers in the

Asia-Pacific - the United States, Japan, China and India.  Strong

bilateral links between countries are insurance against

instability.



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Counter-terrorism



Emerging powers present one challenge for us to manage in the

21st century.  But a more immediate challenge is the fight

against terrorism.



We learned from the 20th Century that appeasement does not

work against totalitarianism.  Nazism and Soviet Communism

were ideologies that preached exclusion and domination, and

sought our destruction.  They were completely at odds with the

pluralism and tolerance that are the bedrock of our values.



We face a similar struggle today against ideologically-driven

Islamist terrorism.



We have to tackle terrorist groups, particularly Al Qaeda,

robustly with all the tools at our disposal, including the force of

arms.  We need to use our diplomatic, intelligence and police

cooperation, and we need to prevent Afghanistan and Iraq

becoming havens for terrorists.  We should never forget that Al

Qaeda used Afghanistan under the Taliban as a haven to train,

plot, and plan for the September 11 attacks on the United States.



That is a major reason why we have to continue to support the

new government in Iraq.  Iraq still faces enormous challenges -

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it has to rebuild its economy, rebuild its government structure

and it has to overcome the insurgency.



We owe it to the people of Iraq to support them.  And the

Australian Government has called on the government in Iraq to

do more to bring an end to the violence.



I would argue that it is also in our interest to help Iraq.  If the

coalition forces were withdrawn from Iraq in circumstances

perceived of as defeat, it would be a boost to Al Qaeda and other

extremist groups.



In Asia, we are working with the Philippines and Indonesia to

strengthen further our already extensive cooperation on counter-terrorism.  The Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement

Cooperation (JCLEC) is jointly managed by Australia and

Indonesia.  It has already trained over 2000 regional law

enforcement officials to combat terrorism and other

transnational crimes.



I am pleased that we have had some successes.  We have been

able to disrupt terrorist groups.  But this will be a generational

fight and it will not be won by the force of arms alone.



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Part of what we are fighting against is the terrorists’ ideas and

their ideology.  Their goal is to replace our way of life with

theirs.  They want to make people believe that different faiths

and beliefs are not capable of living together.  They want to turn

people against each other so we all retreat into our own tribes.

Their ideal state is like Afghanistan under the Taliban - cut off

from the world and brutally ruled with no freedom for its

citizens.



So we have a duty to respond by articulating and reinforcing the

shared values which unite, rather than divide, all people - values

such as tolerance, pluralism and a respect for human dignity.



But governments cannot do this alone - in fact the key messages

need to come from the community.



We need voices from across the globe and from all backgrounds

- religious and secular - to spread the message that tolerance

and living together offers a better future than exclusion and

conflict.  We need to win the argument by showing that what the

extremists want is self-defeating and offers no hope.



In 2004 Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, and I

launched the first of a series of regional Interfaith Dialogues.



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We bring together religious figures from around Asia to discuss

what religious faiths have in common, not what divides them.  I

see these dialogues as an integral part of our effort to rebut the

extremist message and to blunt its appeal within vulnerable

sections of the community.



Our relationship with Indonesia goes a long way beyond

counter-terrorism work, but the strength of our relationship is

very clearly seen in how well we work together on this issue.



Indonesia is the country with the world’s largest Muslim

population and it is the world’s third largest democracy.  And

Indonesia is on the front line in the fight against terrorism.

Australia and Indonesia have a clear understanding on this issue

- we have a mutual interest in doing all we can to reduce and

eliminate this threat.



After all, in the first Bali bombing, 202 people died including, of

course, 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians.



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Fragile States and State Building



Some of the challenges we face are new - a global terrorist

movement that utilises the internet and modern

telecommunications to plan and carry out its attacks.  But in

many ways, how we confront these challenges is not.



To deal with global problems, we need strong states.  We need

states that are effectively run.  We need states with institutions

that are accountable to their citizens.  Because these states -

transparent states with a strong democratic foundation - are the

most robust in the long-term.



Failing or fragile states run the risk of becoming havens for

those seeking to avoid international scrutiny and attention - as

Al Qaeda does in the borderlands of Afghanistan.



In a globalised world, Australia’s security interests are

increasingly affected by lawlessness and disorder in other states.



So assistance to fragile states is of crucial importance.  Australia

wants to look around its near neighbourhood and to the wider

world and see strong, stable, prosperous states.  To get to that

end, we tailor our development assistance program to focus on

giving countries the tools to help themselves.

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One key focus of our development assistance program is good

governance.  By governance we mean helping states to build

strong institutions and democratic foundations.



We promote respect for the rule of law, for minority rights and

for due processes of government.  It is about ensuring election

processes are fair and transparent and ensuring that elected

governments govern responsibly.



We have seen in our own region the dangers of poor

governance.  In Solomon Islands, governance collapsed.  The

resulting lawlessness brought normal daily life to a halt.  People

could not go about their business and the economy faltered

badly.



Australia, along with partners from the Pacific Islands Forum,

established the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands

(RAMSI) to restore order and help rebuild government

structures and systems.  Solomon Islands still faces challenges

today, but it is a safer place, the economy is rebounding and

national governance institutions are being rebuilt.





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In East Timor we have seen a new country trying to establish

itself.  And we have seen the importance of working to get the

basic structures and processes of governance right.  East Timor

has enormous potential because of its oil and gas reserves.  But

it will need to have a strong, transparent governance system to

ensure its wealth is managed wisely.



The peaceful conduct of East Timor’s elections was a great sign

of the people’s desire to play a constructive role in their

country’s future.  But unrest and violence since is a real cause

for concern.  We need all political leaders in East Timor to

accept the outcome of the democratic process, refrain from

violence and work together to allow East Timor to move

forward.



Global Issues



Fragile states highlight the need for us to have a global foreign

policy - a foreign policy that reflects the breadth of our

interests.



And our strong relationships with key partners both in Asia and

beyond leaves us well-placed to deal with any challenges.



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There are two global challenges I would like to highlight that are

of crucial importance to Asia and our foreign policy towards

Asia - preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction

and tackling climate change.



Weapons of Mass Destruction



Australia has been at the forefront of international efforts to

prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons.



We continue to be one of the leading advocates of International

Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.  We played a prominent role

in negotiating the IAEA’s Additional Protocol on strengthened

safeguards, which significantly improves the Agency’s capacity

to detect undeclared nuclear material and activities.



We were the driving force behind getting the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty adopted by the United Nations, and

have recently completed a two-year term coordinating

international efforts to promote entry into force of the treaty.



But we still face challenges.  In Asia, the greatest nuclear threat

comes from North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.



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Australia has been working closely with the countries involved

in the Six-Party Talks to persuade North Korea to give up its

nuclear weapons program.



I have visited North Korea twice myself.  I met the previous

North Korean Foreign Minister many times and I met the new

Foreign Minister just a few weeks ago in Manila.  And I have

made the point to the North Koreans that their pursuit of nuclear

weapons actually undermines their country’s security.  If they

gave up their nuclear weapons and allowed full inspection by

international authorities, Australia and other countries would be

ready to develop our relationship.



It is heartening to see the recent progress in the North Korean

nuclear issue.  I hope that North Korea will continue to

implement its obligations under the deals that have been

reached.



But North Korea should also do more to improve its relations

with its neighbours.



I hope that the summit meeting between the leaders of North and

South Korea - now delayed until October because of the

unfortunate floods in North Korea - produces some real

breakthroughs on the nuclear issue.

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North Korea must also recognise the importance of constructive

relations with Japan, and must realise that it will need to resolve

the issue of abductions of Japanese nationals.



A key element of the danger posed by states like North Korea -

and, potentially, Iran - developing nuclear weapons capability is

that it increases the chance that the technology and materials to

make nuclear weapons will spread even further or that they

could be traded or leak to others - perhaps even to non-state

groups.  The threat of the spread of nuclear weapons is one of

the greatest dangers of our time and we must work hard to

prevent it.



Climate Change



The other global challenge we face is climate change.  And if we

want to solve the problem of climate change, we have to involve

all of the major emitters, including the booming economies of

Asia.



Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions account for around one

and a half per cent of total global emissions.



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To put it another way, if Australia completely shut down all of

its greenhouse gas emitting activities - from power generation to

farming - the reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions

would be minimal.  Increasing emissions from China would

more than account for the reduction in only nine months.



We need to address the challenge of climate change, but we

need to do so in a way that brings all of the major emitters on

board and does not sacrifice our national interest for no gain.



We are working in a number of ways to address this problem

internationally.



In the multilateral arena we are encouraging the United Nations

to deal effectively with climate change.  I have called for new

negotiations on a global agreement to begin at the United

Nations meeting on the Framework Convention on Climate

Change that will take place in Bali in December.



And we are working in the Asia-Pacific region, too.  The Prime

Minister has put climate change on the agenda for the APEC

Leaders Meeting in Sydney the week after next.  Given that

APEC economies account for around 60 per cent of global

energy demand, the meeting is an opportunity for us to shape the

debate in response to climate change.

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We have also established new groups to deal with the issue.

Early last year Australia hosted the first meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate - the

AP6.



The AP6 brings Australia together with China, India, Japan,

Korea and the United States to spur the development of

technological solutions to climate change.  It brings government

and private sector representatives together to share experiences.

We will need technological solutions to manage climate change

and government has a role to play in supporting development of

those solutions.



One further element of our approach is a focus on deforestation

as a cause of greenhouse gas emissions.  Deforestation in the

developing world accounts for around 20 per cent of global

greenhouse gas emissions.  We have established the Global

Initiative on Forests and Climate and will use it to work with

countries like Indonesia to manage their forests and reduce

greenhouse gas emissions.



And, the last element of our approach is to work bilaterally with

key partners.



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With China, for example, we have a clean coal working group

that will develop new technologies and encourage their

adoption.  Australia is the largest exporter of coal and China is

the world’s largest consumer.



As long as the world relies on cheap and plentiful supplies of

coal to generate cheap electricity, clean coal technologies will

be an important part of the global response to climate change.



CONCLUSION



One goal of foreign policy is to make sure that your country is

well-placed to meet the challenges of tomorrow.  To do this, we

have to remember the key lessons of history.



For Australia, this means building our relationships with key

countries in Asia and beyond.  We have strengthened our

relationship with the United States, we have strengthened our

relations with the emerging giants China and India, and our

relationships with key partners like Indonesia and Japan have

new depth to them.



Our relationships with the countries of Southeast Asia are

strong.  We cooperate on counter-terrorism and, along with New

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Zealand, we are negotiating a free trade agreement with the ten-member ASEAN group.



The strength of our relationships and our flexible approach to

finding solutions means we are well placed to deal with the

challenges we face today: the shifting distribution of global

power, counter-terrorism, assisting fragile states, preventing the

spread of weapons of mass destruction and climate change.



I would like to leave you with one thought this afternoon.



Asia is going through a unique historical transition.  It has two

emerging giants - China and India.  It has the world’s second-largest economy - Japan - that is taking on a higher

international profile.  And it has many states transforming

themselves economically and politically.



Australia has strong bilateral relationships across the region and

beyond.  And we have robust institutions that let us meet any

challenges with confidence.



Australia is well-positioned not only to deal with the changes,

but to make the most out of them.



Thank you.

