Australia faces a critical juncture, yet again. In 1973, the country had to react to Britain’s decision to turn its back on the Commonwealth and pursue Europe. Australia responded by looking to Asia and North America to seek out new markets and forge new strategic ties. The resulting overhaul has been a spectacular success, enabling Australia’s economy to expand over the last 27 years on the strength of trade with Asia. Yet, the status quo may have an expiry date: how much longer can Australia continue balancing its economic ties to China while allied with the United States?
However US-China competition may unfold in the future, Australia claims that Southeast Asia is pivotal to its interests. After all, any threat to Australian security must come through or from Southeast Asia. However, Australia’s approach toward the region is erratic. At different times, it has been ambivalent toward and dismissive of the region’s main institution, ASEAN. Yet, just the other week and not for the first time, a report from a Canberra security think tank calls on Australia and New Zealand to join ASEAN.
Likewise, Australia’s relations with individual countries in Southeast Asia can be something like a roller-coaster ride. As the first article in this week’s Spotlight suggests, Australia’s relations with Cambodia, like those with the Philippines, are turning sour over Premier Hun Sen’s braggadocio and the reactions it has elicited in Australia in the lead-up to the Australia-ASEAN Special Summit in Sydney on 17-18 March. Despite some questionable claims of what Cambodian opposition politicians have done, the Phnom Penh-based writer is right on one point: disrespect is rarely a wise move.
In our second article for this week’s Spotlight, John Blaxland, an international security professor at the Australian National University, identifies respect as a central factor that is often missing in Australia’s engagement with Southeast Asia. First appearing in the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter blog, Blaxland’s piece highlights the fact that in pursuit of their own interests, Australians need to work with Southeast Asians. They must endure all habits and limitations of Southeast Asians even if they find them chafing.
Ironically, Southeast Asians have long complained about of the same things with Australians. A deeper reflection of the position that Southeast Asians and Australians occupy in the changing world will reveal that they are more similarly situated than they care to admit: small and middle powers that are trying to balance benefiting from China’s economic rise and the security and stability that the United States provides until recently. If both sides can realize that they face the same critical juncture, perhaps that will strengthen their common interests.
