Australia remains committed to engaging with China, but both sides need to adapt to the new and changing strategic environment, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a New Year’s address to the National Press Club of Australia on Feb. 1. An enduring partnership requires us both to adapt to these new realities and to engage with each other,” he said. This starts with dialogue at the ministerial and leadership level.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on January 29 that Australia’s new trade minister, Dan Tehan, said on January 28 that he had written to Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao on the 22nd seeking to restart dialogue between China and Australia and discuss trade matters, yet by the 29th, Chinese officials had not responded to him. Tehan did not disclose the specific content of the letter, only that it was “a detailed letter”. He said there are “many ways” Australia can “engage constructively with China” on commercial relations.
Morrison devoted his New Year’s policy address on Monday to Australia-China relations. When it came to foreign policy, Morrison said, “Australia must use its institutions to shape the world in our interests, and that starts with our own region.” He said, “This week, I will be joining the leaders of our Pacific Family at the Pacific Islands Forum, where we can talk about another year of strong implementation of our ‘Pacific Strengthening Program’ under the leadership of the foreign and Pacific ministers.” “The same is true of our engagement with ASEAN, which is at the heart of our vision for the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
Morrison said, “In Indonesia, we will continue to implement our new Indo-Australian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (IA-CEPA) and provide support for its vaccine program. We also recently upgraded our relationship with Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand last week and reached a new digital commerce agreement with Singapore.” He said, “For the third year in a row, I have been invited to be a guest at the G7 Summit to be held in the UK in June. This is an important recognition that Australia’s contribution is valued.” Morrison stressed that “cooperation between like-minded liberal democracies, market economies, has never been more important.” He noted that “the geopolitical environment will remain extremely challenging.”
Morrison said, “I am confident that our alliance with the United States, as it turns 70 this year, will grow stronger with the cooperation of the Biden administration.” He said, “We know that the defense relationship will remain the cornerstone of this partnership, and our commitment to invest A$270 billion in defense capabilities over the next decade reflects our commitment to playing our part. Our work in the four-nation dialogue mechanism, which includes the United States, Japan and India, has been deepened and expanded, as evidenced by my recent visit to Japan with Minister Payne.”
Morrison said, “Our cooperation with the ‘Five Eyes Alliance’ countries has also been strengthened, expanding into new areas of common interest, particularly in the economic and technical areas with the participation of the Secretary of the Treasury.” He continued, “We need to work with close partners to develop and protect sensitive and critical technologies, including quantum computing and artificial intelligence. We also need to build secure supply chains of critical minerals for the new clean energy technologies of the future.”
When it comes to relations with China, Morrison said, “The evolution of the U.S. relationship with China will shape the geopolitical environment for the foreseeable future, and it has done so in the past. For our part, we remain committed to engaging with China.” He said, “Both of our peoples have benefited enormously from the depth of our economic ties. But it’s not surprising that there would be differences between two countries with such different economic and political systems.”
Morrison noted that “our task is to ensure that such differences do not prevent Australia and China from realizing the mutual benefits of this partnership, consistent with their respective national sovereign interests.” He said, “The outlook for China and the nature of China’s foreign engagement in the region and globally has changed since our comprehensive strategic partnership was established, and much earlier than that, certainly decades ago to the present.”
Morrison said, “We can’t pretend that things are still the same as they were before. The world has changed. An enduring partnership requires that we both adapt to these new realities and talk to each other.” He said, “This starts with dialogue at both the ministerial and leadership levels.” He added, “The focus of the dialogue is not on concessions, but on areas of mutual benefit and a commitment to finding a way for our countries and peoples to engage usefully in the future. Now, we in Australia are certainly open to such a process.”
Morrison said, “We will continue to create new opportunities for our exporters and I know that Minister Tehan is jumping at the opportunity to be there already, through a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom and their possible participation in an expanded Trans-Pacific Partnership. I thank Secretary Birmingham for the great job he’s doing and he’s going through all the opportunities for Dan now.” He said, “It’s also about accelerating our negotiations with the European Union on an ambitious comprehensive agreement, particularly for barriers to agricultural products.”
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