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.