Ever since Gough Whitlam, Australian foreign policy mavens have wittered about “finding our place in Asia”. For too long, though, that seems to have too often consisted of sucking up to dictators. Whitlam set the tone with his visit — as Opposition Leader — to a China still under the iron rule of Mao and in the throes of the Cultural Revolution. One of Whitlam’s last acts as PM was to formally recognise the brutal Indonesian occupation of Timor.
Over the next few decades, “engaging with Asia” became mostly about pandering to the Chinese Communist Party in the hope of skimming off some of their apparently inexhaustible coffers.
Covid has brutally ripped the scales from many Australians’ eyes. Certainly too many in big business and the university sector are still blindly grasping after Chinese money, Silent Invasion be damned. Ordinary Australians are not so easily blinded by greed: polling shows that Australians’ trust in China has plunged to record lows. The Morrison government finally found its backbone to confront China, to Beijing’s obvious fury.
Now, finally, an Australian government is really engaging with Asia — at least, the rest of Asia that isn’t China and doesn’t want to be.
The informal “Quad” alliance — Australia, the US, Japan and India — is just one part of the growing bulwark of democratic nations in Asia uniting in the face of the Chinese threat. Other Asian nations are also signalling stronger co-operation.
The visit to Australia by South Korean President Moon Jae-in is a quietly historic step in the growing regional unity.
At a time when the Beijing leadership demonises the Australian government in every way it can, Mr Moon declared that South Korea and Australia are “like-minded nations”. That’s a strong endorsement, a strong gesture of friendship.
It doesn’t matter that the President speaks a little more softly on China than his Australian colleagues do. His visit itself is the message. This visit is an act of great solidarity with Australia.
The defence contracts are important, our biggest ever with an Asian partner (Paul Keating should praise this deal as seeking our security with Asia rather than against it), and so are the energy collaborations, and in particular the trade diplomacy. South Korea is a major relationship for Australia, one that embraces both our past and our future.
The Australian
The past (and in too many cases, continuing) infatuation with China has led Australia as a nation to too often neglect other Asian powers. Australia’s relationship with South Korea goes back to at least the 1950s, when we joined the coalition defending it against communist invasion. South Korea is Australia’s fourth largest export market. Most importantly, it is a fellow democracy under threat.
Like Australia, South Korea has borne the brunt of Chinese economic coercion, enduring at least $10bn in trade boycotts after its decision to deploy US-made THAAD missiles to protect key bases from North Korean attack […]
Mr Moon, in the first visit by a foreign leader to Australia since the start of the pandemic, committed with Mr Morrison to a new $100m partnership to develop clean-energy technology, and a new minerals pact to secure Australian lithium and rare earths for South Korea’s tech sector.
The leaders used the visit to formally elevate the nations’ bilateral relationship to a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, and observed the signing of a long-awaited contract for South Korea’s Hanwha to build 30 self-propelled howitzers and 15 ammunition resupply vehicles in Geelong for the Australian Army.
The Australian
Given that Australia’s defense challenges lie mostly in the air and sea, building heavy land-based equipment may seem a waste of money. But, then, the decision to sign up for France to build new submarines for the RAN was mostly wasted money, too. If we’re going to spend precious defense dollars on useless hardware, spending it to cement an alliance with a major power with a like-minded strategic interest in our region may not be money wasted, after all.