The Australian government should be exploring opportunities for closer strategic partnerships with a number of Southeast Asian states, according to a key report just published by UNSW@ADFA academic Carl Thayer.
The Gillard Government should be exploring opportunities for closer strategic partnerships with a number of Southeast Asian states as a counterbalance to future pressure from the US and China, according to a key report published by UNSW@ADFA academic Carl Thayer.
Australia will face a more complex strategic environment over the next five years as China's rise challenges United States primacy, and as the key Southeast Asian states of Indonesia and Vietnam play more significant roles, says Professor Thayer, who is the author of Southeast Asia: Patterns of security cooperation, which has been published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
"These changes in Southeast Asia's security environment will pull Australian strategic policy in different and possibly contradictory directions," says Professor Thayer, who adds that for the first time in its history Australia's most important trading partner, China, is not its main ally.
"In the event of increased Sino-American tensions, Australia would come under US pressure to take sides," he says. "This might jeopardise Australia's own defence engagement with China and have negative repercussions on trade relations.
"Australia needs to enhance practical multilateral security cooperation, encouraging and supporting a larger US role in the region and building links to regional partners to bolster Southeast Asia's own strategic weight," he says.
The report suggests that there is an opportunity for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to expand its focus from soft security issues such as transnational or non-traditional threats into areas of more strategic significance.
ASEAN defence ministers and their dialogue partners, including Australia, China and the US, will meet on October 12.
Media contact: Susi Hamilton, UNSW media, 0422 934 024