AUSTRALIA needs to move beyond obsessing over its diplomatic balancing
act between the US and China, and focus more on its relationship with
south-east Asia, according to former foreign ministers Alexander Downer and
Gareth Evans.
Mr Evans, who served as foreign
minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, said Australia's relationship
with the region would improve if it could shake off ''the lingering
perception'' around Asia that Australia plays ''deputy sheriff'' to the US.
Mr Downer, who served in the
Howard government, said Australia should ''move past the glib generalisations
about engaging with Asia'' and recognise that the continent is not homogeneous
and that wide cultural differences existed between different parts of Asia.
With south-east Asia on our
doorstep, he said, Australia's political and security policies would always be
built around the 10 ASEAN member countries, including Indonesia, Thailand,
Malaysia and Singapore.
''That's where our regional
diplomatic strategy should start. From there we can successfully build
outwards,'' Mr Downer, who is now a director of Chinese telco giant Huawei and
for Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill Holdings, commented in a new Asialink report.
The report, edited by Anthony
Milner and Sally Percival Wood, said the Gillard government's Asian Century
white paper, while singling out Indonesia as one of five key Asian countries to
focus on, said ''surprisingly little'' about the value of Australia's
relationship with ASEAN.
Speaking at a separate event in
Melbourne, the Indonesian consul for economic affairs, Sri Dewi Kuntarti, said
misperceptions persisted between Australian and Indonesian business people.
''Most of the businessmen in
Indonesia assume that Australia is a small country and it is difficult to deal
with business with the citizens in this country,'' Mrs Kuntarti said.
The Indonesian vice-consul,
Maradona Runtukahu, said despite the geographic proximity between the two
countries, Australian investment into Indonesia, and two-way trade was ''rather
small''. ''The way we see it is, lately, business relationship between
Australia and Indonesia is underdone,'' he said.
Trade between Australia and ASEAN
member countries reached $88.4 billion last year, accounting for a substantial
14.5 per cent of Australia's global trade. By comparison, trade with China was
$121 billion, or 20 per cent of global trade.
But the average rate of growth in
trade with ASEAN countries in the past five years, at 4.6 per cent, lags
dramatically behind the Chinese trade growth rate of 20 per cent.
Philip Wen
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