Free and Open Indo-Pacific and Its

Implications: An Australian Perspective

Emeritus Professor Carlyle A. Thayer

Paper to International Conference on
Whither ‘The Indo-Pacific Strategy?’
Shifting Strategic Landscape in the Asia-Pacific Region
Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace,
Konrad Adenauer Foundation and U.S. Embassy
Raffles Hotel Le Royale, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
September 20-21, 2018
 Overview
1. Introduction
2. Australia and the Indo-Pacific
Region
3. Australia’s Embrace of the Indo-
Pacific as a Single Strategic Arc
4. Conclusion
 1. Introduction
A rose by any other name
would smell as sweet
Unicorn
 Two Views of a Region
View 1
• A region is a territory that
is unified by a set of
common factors that
could include
geographical proximity,
climate, economic
integration, trade,
culture, religion, shared
history and/or strategic
interaction.
View 2
• A region is a geo-political
construct designed by
government leaders,
statesmen, military,
businessmen, academics
and others to serve a
specific policy purpose or
a framework for strategic
analysis.
 Foreign Minister Gareth Evans’
East Asian Hemisphere August 1995

Kevin Rudd’s Asia Pacific Community – June 2008

Asia-Pacific or Indo-Asia-Pacific?
2. Australia and the
Indo-Pacific Region

19th Century map

depicts Australia as
part of the Indo-
Pacific

Australia borders
both the Indian and
Pacific Oceans
 Australian External Territories
in the Indian Ocean
Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Island
Australia has major links to the Indian
Ocean, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia
Australia has a special role
in the South Pacific
3. Australia’s Embrace of the Indo-
Pacific as a Single Strategic Arc
 Four Major White Papers

1. Australia in the Asian Century White

Paper (2012)
2. Defence White Paper 2013
3. Defence White Paper 2016
4. Foreign Policy White Paper 2017
 Defence White Paper 2016
Three strategic defence interests:
1. a secure, resilient Australia;
2. a secure nearer region, encompassing
maritime South East Asia and the South
Pacific; and
3. a stable Indo-Pacific region and rules-based
global order which supports our interests.
Economic Opportunities
Crucial Role of the United States
 Foreign Affairs White Paper 2017

Six themes:
1. The benefits to Australia of the
economic dynamism of the Indo-Pacific;
2. A rules based order where the rights of
all states are respected free from the
exercise of coercive power;
 Foreign Affairs White Paper 2017

3. Free trade and open markets;

4. The centrality of the U.S. alliance;
5. Constructive ties with China; and
6. Cooperation with the region’s major
democracies
 A Stable and Prosperous Indo-Pacific
1. Countries foster habits of dialogue and
cooperation, and resolve disputes peacefully
in accordance with international law and
without the threat or use of force or coercion
2. Open markets facilitate flows of goods,
services, capital and ideas
3. Economic integration is inclusive of and open
to all the region’s economies
 A Stable and Prosperous Indo-Pacific
4. Rights of freedom of navigation and overflight
are upheld and the rights of small states are
protected
5. The United States remains strongly engaged in
the economic and security affairs of the region
and continues to help shape its institutions and
norms, and
6. China plays a leading role in a way that
strengthens a regional order based on these
principles.
 4. Conclusion
• The Indo-Pacific is a vibrant region that
offers major economic opportunities for
Australia.
• The stability of the Indo-Pacific is vitally
dependent on open markets conducted
on the basis of mutually agreed rules
that protect the rights of all states
against coercive power.
 Conclusion
• Continued engagement by the United
States is critical for regional peace,
security and stability.
• Australia must work with major
democracies to maintain a peaceful
rules-based order.
• It is in Australia’s interest to
constructively engage with China.
 Implications
• China’s unilateral assertiveness of
territorial claims, militarisation of the
South China Sea, naval deployments in
the Indian Ocean, quest for naval port
access in the South Pacific and
interference in Australia’s domestic
affairs undermine Australia’s policy of
constructive engagement
 Implications
• President Trump’s America First policy,
particularly by rectifying trade imbalances
with tariffs and pursuit of unilateral Free Trade
Agreements, undermines Australia’s economic
engagement in the Indo-Pacific
• Australia, Japan, India and other like-minded
states will have to pick up the “strategic slack”
to maintain a peaceful and stable IPR
 Free and Open Indo-Pacific and Its
Implications: An Australian Perspective

Emeritus Professor Carlyle A. Thayer

Paper to International Conference on
Whither ‘The Indo-Pacific Strategy?’
Shifting Strategic Landscape in the Asia-Pacific Region
Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace,
Konrad Adenauer Foundation and U.S. Embassy
Raffles Hotel Le Royale, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
September 20-21, 2018