In Deepening Ties With ASEAN, Australia Gains a ‘Strategic Hedge’ https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/24455/in-deepening...

In Deepening Ties With ASEAN,

Australia Gains a ‘Strategic
Hedge’
The Editors | Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Earlier this month, Australia hosted its first special summit with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
addresses delegates during an emerging
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the 10-member leaders roundtable at the ASEAN special
summit, Sydney, Australia, March 16, 2018 (AP
regional bloc known as ASEAN. While it is not a member,
photo by Rick Rycroft).
Australia has developed a close working relationship with the
group. Amid discussions in Sydney focused on regional security
and trade issues, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed ASEAN as a “strategic convener.” The
two sides also unveiled a joint infrastructure initiative that looks to provide a potential alternative to
China’s huge Belt and Road Initiative. In an email interview, Evan Laksmana (http://www.evanlaksmana.com/), a
senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia, discusses how
ASEAN fits into Australia’s regional foreign policy and the obstacles that could stand in the way of greater
cooperation.

WPR: What is driving Australia’s closer alignment with ASEAN, and how does this fit into Australian
foreign policy in Asia?

Evan Laksmana: Canberra’s foreign policy in the region can be broken down into three levels—the
regional, the bilateral and the multilateral. Each one offers different strategic interests, opportunities and
challenges. At the regional level, Southeast Asia has a combined population of 620 million people, as well
as a cumulative $2.6 trillion economy growing at more than 5 percent every year. This market offers
Australia a huge economic opportunity in the long run and provides it with its geostrategic connection to
the broader Indo-Pacific.

At the bilateral level, Australia maintains distinct relationships with each country in the region, including
longstanding security partnerships with Singapore and Malaysia. It also shares a unique strategic
relationship with Indonesia, for instance. ASEAN, on the other hand, offers Australia a host of multilateral
diplomatic venues that allow it to engage with the wider region that it always claims to be a part of,

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In Deepening Ties With ASEAN, Australia Gains a ‘Strategic Hedge’ https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/24455/in-deepening...

including the ASEAN Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-
Plus. While Australia is not an ASEAN member, it is a member of nearly all of the ASEAN-related
mechanisms, like the ASEAN Regional Forum. Such multilateral platforms provide Canberra with an
additional strategic hedge against the growing uncertainty across the Indo-Pacific, at a time when the
alliance with the United States is being seriously questioned (https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/22994
/trump-has-hastened-a-profound-shift-in-australia-s-view-of-its-u-s-alliance) at home.

The elephant in the room, however, is China, which continues to establish its own strategic power in the
region. This forces Canberra to juggle competing interests, including its alliance with the U.S., growing
economic ties with China and domestic schisms (https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/23935/as-china-extends-its-
reach-abroad-when-does-influence-become-interference) over China’s increasing influence in Australian politics and
society. ASEAN actually gives Canberra a platform to engage the region on a wide range of issues without
rocking the boat on these competing interests. In other words, supporting ASEAN as the “strategic
convener,” as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull recently called it, allows Australia to shape and mold the
region gradually to meet its interests without raising the stakes too quickly or unnecessarily.

WPR: What opportunities are there to expand and deepen the relationship?

Laksmana: Between what was agreed to in their joint declaration at the recent summit in Sydney and the
five-year Plan of Action to Implement the ASEAN-Australia Strategic Partnership, which was adopted in
2014 (http://asean.org/storage/2017/12/Overview-of-ASEAN-Australia-DR_as-of-October-2017.pdf), the two sides already have
a long list of issues to work through. These documents signify the widening ASEAN-Australia partnership
that goes back to 1974, but they also suggest the difficulties of covering so many policy areas, including
politics, security, economics and people-to-people relations.

That said, the issues of maritime security, counterterrorism, cyber capabilities and infrastructure
development that were highlighted during the special summit are low-hanging fruits. These are policy
challenges where the interests of Australia and Southeast Asia are relatively aligned, and which both
sides, whether bilaterally or multilaterally, have worked together on for quite some time. Canberra also
unveiled a proposed ASEAN-Australia Infrastructure Cooperation Initiative (http://www.afr.com/news/world
/asia/australia-challenges-china-on-infrastructure-20180318-h0xmu1) at the recent summit that might be an increasingly
important complement to security ties by providing an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative,
while also helping regional states solidify their domestic political legitimacy. After all, according to the
Asian Development Bank, regional states will need as much as $26 trillion (https://www.adb.org/publications/asia-
infrastructure-needs) to meet their infrastructure needs by 2030. They certainly could use all the help they
could get. Overall, the framework for broader cooperation is in place. But given the wide-ranging nature
of the issues, both ASEAN and Australia should first focus on these four low-hanging fruits, even as they
take small steps on the rest.

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WPR: What obstacles stand in the way for Australia and ASEAN’s various member states?

Laksmana: Given the “ASEAN way” of doing business—gradually and without offending anyone—as well
as Australia’s long history of active involvement and public support of ASEAN-related mechanisms, there
is no serious fundamental problem beyond the need for strategic patience. Again, the Sydney Declaration
and Plan of Action are in place. The challenge, perhaps, lies in their implementation. But for the most part,
ASEAN members realize and even rely on the slow-paced nature of its multilateral diplomacy. That’s not
always going to be the case for Canberra. Under some administrations, like Turnbull’s, Australia might be
more patient on some issues like human rights or democracy, and engage in such difficult questions
behind closed doors. But there is no guarantee that future administrations won’t publicly pursue those
issues that many in ASEAN consider “sensitive” and risk Australia’s relations with the bloc.

When it comes to Australia’s bilateral ties in the region, the challenges are more varied and bound up in
Australia’s unique historical relationship with each country. Consider Australia’s relationship with
Indonesia, which suffered immensely following the 1999 East Timor fiasco. Progress has been made over
the past decade or more in restoring the relationship, including their 2006 security agreement, known as
the Lombok Treaty, and the recently announced Maritime Cooperation Action Plans. But relations remain
fraught with potential land mines, from domestic political sensitivities over human rights to challenges
involving trade relations and maritime boundary delimitations.

That is actually one of the advantages of ASEAN, which allows Australia to engage with the countries of
the region buffered from the state of their individual bilateral ties. But the primacy of domestic politics,
whether in Canberra or each ASEAN member’s capital, is never far away and must always be considered.

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