Australia may adopt pragmatic Asian policy

Australia may adopt pragmatic Asian policy

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuter): Australia's new conservative government seems
determined to quickly build bilateral bridges with Asia through a
series of official visits and by using a special envoy to help
with difficult relations.

Within days of taking office, the Liberal-National coalition
government, led by Prime Minister John Howard, announced the
first visit by a Malaysian prime minister in 12 years.

The visit is a diplomatic coup, say foreign policy analysts,
as Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad has been a strident critic of
Australia's push to become part of Asia.

"They promised to repair bilateral relationships and not let
multilateralism take over and what they have done is seize the
opportunity with Malaysia to pursue that very end," said Carlyle
Thayer, an expert on Southeast Asia-Australia relations.

"That was the one relationship with Southeast Asia that was
very in need of repairing," Thayer, of Duntroon Military College
in Canberra, told Reuters.

New Australian Treasurer Peter Costello attended the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum finance ministers'
meeting in Kyoto, Japan on March 16 and 17. Howard and Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer both plan to make early Asian trips.

Foreign policy analysts believe Indonesia, Australia's biggest
and nearest Asian neighbor, and Japan, its major trading partner,
are the two most likely destinations.

The conservatives' official foreign policy platform seeks
stronger ties with north Asian nations of Japan and South Korea.

The new government has also shown its intention of utilizing a
special envoy if necessary to achieve closer links with Asia.

Former Australian ambassador to Indonesia Dick Woolcott has
extensive links throughout Asia, and has been appointed new
secretary of Australia's foreign affairs and trade department.

Within days of the new government's landslide election victory
on March 2, Woolcott was on the telephone to Malaysia to secure a
meeting with Mahathir.

Howard announced the Mahathir visit within hours of the Kuala
Lumpur meeting between Woolcott and the Malaysian prime minister
last Thursday.

Thayer said the use of a special envoy, in the political
twilight between being elected and being fully operational, sent
a message to Asia that the government had already set its
priority on building stronger ties with the region.

"The longer the government is in power the more the
established mechanisms of diplomacy will take over," he said.

Analysts say the biggest foreign policy difference between the
former Labor administration and the new government will be a
reluctance to engage in multilateral political diplomacy.

Under Labor, Australia orchestrated the Cambodian peace
process and the birth of APEC, and was a major force in bringing
about a global chemical weapons ban.

Analysts argue this agenda was a result of the personal
ambitions of the former foreign minister, Gareth Evans.

"All those resulted mainly from the Evans personality and
intellect. But it doesn't look like Downer is the kind of risk
taking, ambitious person," Thayer said.

Analysts say the government also seems intent on taking a more
pragmatic, some say commercial, approach to foreign policy.

The government has said it is keen to sell uranium to
Indonesia, if it goes ahead with plans to build nuclear power
plants, and possibly Japan and South Korea, ending 13 years of
restrictions on sales of the nuclear fuel.

Downer has said Australia would drop its opposition to
Mahathir's East Asia Economic Caucus, which excludes Australia, a
move some analysts see as appeasement.

Australia's Transfield Shipbuilding is a leading contender for
a US$1.5 billion contract to build Malaysian naval patrol
vessels, one of the region's biggest pending defense deals.

Analysts say the new government will focus on defense links
with Asia and a successful Transfield bid would open up further
defense relations in Southeast Asia.

The new government is also expected to take a different
approach to human rights in Asia -- the issue which caused the
former Labor government the most headaches at home and abroad.

"They may put more effort into trade issues and they may make
a little less noise about human rights," said Stuart Harris, of
the Australian National University.

Former Liberal Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser said
he hoped the government would adopt a more Asian perspective on
human rights. "I hope we will lecture Asia a little less," he
said.