Australia-ASEAN at 50: Mateship for Peace and Stability

Editor’s Note: The writers are co-authors of the report, Comprehensive Strategic Partners: ASEAN and Australia after the first 50 years, launched on 1 March 2024 at the University of Melbourne’s Asialink by Australia’s Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tim Watts MP.

ASEAN leaders will join Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia dialogue partnership. The expectation is that both sides will take stock of the past 50 years and discuss opportunities for future engagement.

Australia was ASEAN’s first formal Dialogue Partner in 1974, and the first partner accorded the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2021. The reality for Australia is that its relative importance to ASEAN has shifted over the decades from rhetorical support in the early days of ASEAN’s establishment to active and intensive engagement today. For ASEAN, the same is true in that Australia’s active engagement has been a welcome relief against an increasingly challenging geopolitical environment.

ASEAN’s individual members may pursue their own foreign policy and economic development priorities, but when it comes to the grouping’s collective interests, a cohesive front is necessary for it to convene discussions with external partners like Australia. This will enable deep reflection, considered debate, and even significant disagreement. It is this cohesive front that will be on display this week as leaders tackle issues as divisive as the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Myanmar crisis and the South China Sea disputes.

The reality for Australia is that its relative importance to ASEAN has shifted over the decades from rhetorical support in the early days of ASEAN’s establishment to active and intensive engagement today.

Australia, perhaps more than some others, has been prepared to engage in ways that have built a significant set of relationships and trust across Southeast Asia and with ASEAN sustained throughout five decades of social, economic and strategic change. The 2021 agreement of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Australia is a testament to a unique model of diplomatic and people-to-people ties coupled with practical cooperation in responding to ASEAN’s priorities.

The Albanese government is keen to revamp the economic relationship with ASEAN and this is evident in Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 (also called the Moore report, named after the report’s author Nicholas Moore AO, Australia’s Special Envoy to Southeast Asia). The report provides substantial recommendations to support trade and investment in 12 areas, including agriculture and food, resources, the green energy transition, infrastructure, and the visitor economy. The Australian government has committed A$95 million (US$62 million) to jumpstart Australian investment and increase trade to Southeast Asia — two major recommendations of the Moore report.

The steady, incremental evolution of Australia’s cooperation with Southeast Asia and ASEAN as an institution has been an effective strategy. The ASEAN-Australia dialogue partnership has created conditions for the development of mutual trust, the evolution of technical and cultural practices that help reinforce modes of cooperation, and the expansion, over time, of joint work into an ever-increasing range of activities. The fact that Australia also enjoys particularly strong bilateral ties across Southeast Asia has contributed to this success.

Over time, Australia’s closest relationships within the region have also evolved in response to different strategic and economic opportunities. Thinking ahead, it is important to consider some of the models of engagement that will help to sustain a peaceful and prosperous region for many years to come.

Australia needs to invest in peace, security and development cooperation with some of ASEAN’s newer members. Australia’s previous engagements with the Cambodia peace process and in Timor-Leste are valuable precedents that show that Australia is ready to roll up its sleeves and get into the trenches with ASEAN.

From both Australian and ASEAN perspectives, there is an imperative to ensure that Timor-Leste becomes an effective member of ASEAN. Australia would need to work closely with ASEAN to offer advice and resources to help Timor-Leste become a productive member of ASEAN and sustain its engagement over the years ahead. The Australian government has already allocated funding to assist Timor-Leste in preparing for its eventual membership in ASEAN. Timor-Leste needs to build sufficient capacity to participate in the more than 1,500 ASEAN meetings in any given calendar year and eventually hold the chairmanship of the grouping at a future stage. Australia’s partnership will help bolster the intra-ASEAN mechanisms supporting Timor-Leste’s success.

Another long-term investment for Australia’s consideration is building durable peace in Myanmar and its eventual rehabilitation back to the international community. The protracted conflict in Myanmar is a hot potato issue and Myanmar’s deteriorating political and economic health is a major test for Southeast Asia’s peace and stability. The international community is happy to let ASEAN take the lead in the issue of Myanmar. But a vested partner like Australia knows full well that regional stabilisation, peace-building and dialogue needs a good deal of time and resource investments by multiple parties. Australian coordination with ASEAN on engaging Myanmar stakeholders in any form, format, or protocol, whether inside, outside or at the periphery, would be helpful in much the same way Australia had engaged with Cambodia and Timor-Leste back in the 1970s and 1990s.

It would be full credit to ASEAN and Australia if Timor-Leste and Myanmar were to participate in the 100th-year celebrations as respected, productive and effective members of ASEAN in 2074.

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