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April 04, 2005
Neighborly relations
Opponents of Australian PM John Howard's foreign policy like to point out what they see as his overemphasis on relations with the United States to the detriment of those with Australia's Asian neighbors. This criticism has been several years in the making, and it usually consists of a few key points. First, relations with Indonesia, Australia's most populous (and most proximate) neighbor and the country with the world's largest Muslim population, have been somewhat strained ever since the Australian-led UN mission in East Timor in 1999. Second, Howard has simultaneously brought Australian foreign policy closer to that of the United States, most notably by fully participating in the U.S. mission in Iraq. Taken together, Howard's critics argue, such actions and others represent a fundamental foreign policy shift away from Asia and too close to the United States.
But is this critique wholly justified? Peter Hartcher of the Syndey Morning Herald thinks not:
The whole framework for Australian political discussion about foreign affairs has been a false and fruitless one for decades. This is the idea that there are only two options -- Asia or "the West", which, in Australian politicalspeak, means the US -- and there is some sort of trade-off for a government in emphasising one over the other.
[...]
An exporter wants markets to grow everywhere, and wants a government that will open the way wherever it might be blocked. And the woolgrower knows that it is no use to sell to China if the US is in trouble, because the US is the key market for China's textile exports. And so on. The exporter needs America and Asia.
Likewise, in diplomacy a country's influence is increased if it has weight with a larger number of other countries. To achieve an agreement on arms proliferation or fisheries practices or just about anything, a government needs influence in Washington and Asia, and, of course, elsewhere too.
Such an assessment is quite timely. This week, the heads of government of both Indonesia and Malaysia will visit Canberra. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's visit has already concluded. His country's relationship with Australia has been driven by sacrifice and emotion in recent months and years, through shared terrorist bombings and through Indonesia's recent natural disasters. In the context of the latter, Australia has offered nearly US$1 billion for tsunami relief, and nine Australian servicemen have recently died in the provision of that aid. In his address at Parliament House, Yudhoyono emphasized these connections. He also vowed to promote Australia as an integral part of Asia, and he pledged to begin cooperation with Australia on a new security pact.
Such a successful visit, it would seem, by such an important Asian neighbor should go a long way in silencing critics of Howard's "unbalanced" foreign policy. It seems that much of Australian public opinion would support Howard's recent diplomacy, as well. If the visit by Malaysian PM Abdullah Badawi later this week is only half as successful as Yudhoyono's -- an outcome which is far from guaranteed -- Howard's critics may be left with even less to say.
Posted by Daniel Widome at 04:15 PM to Asia,
