Australia Country Review; 01/07/2001, p19, 6p

Article from Australia Country Review; 01/07/2001, p19, 6p.

Foreign Relations

General Relations

Australia has been active in international affairs since World War II. Its first major independent foreign policy action was to conclude an agreement in 1944 with New Zealand dealing with the security, welfare and advancement of the people of the independent territories of the Pacific (the ANZAC Pact). After the war, Australia played a role in the Far Eastern Commission in Japan and supported Indonesian independence during that country’s revolt against the Dutch (1945-49). Australia was one of the founders of both the United Nations and the South Pacific Commission (1947), and in 1950, it proposed the Colombo Plan to assist developing countries in Asia.

In addition to contributing to U.N. forces in Korea (it was the first country to announce it would do so after the United States), Australia also sent troops to assist in putting down the communist revolt in Malaya in 1948-60. In 1963-65, Australia sent troops to combat the Indonesian-supported invasion of Sarawak. Australia also sent troops to assist South Vietnamese and U.S. forces in Vietnam and joined coalition forces in the Persian Gulf conflict in 1991.
Australia has also been active in the Australia-New Zealand-United Kingdom Agreement and the Five-Power Defense Arrangement, successive arrangements with Britain and New Zealand to ensure the security of Singapore and Malaysia.
One of the drafters of the U.N. Charter, Australia has given firm support to the United Nations and its specialized agencies. It was a member of the U.N. Security Council in 1986-87, a member of the Economic and Social Council from 1986 until 1989, and a member of the U.N. Human Rights Commission from 1994 to 1996. Australia plays a prominent role in many other U.N. activities, including peacekeeping, disarmament negotiations and narcotics control.
Regional Relations

The last decade or so has seen distinct and significant swings in the foreign policy of Australia. After having been in the orbit of the United States and Europe for over 100 years, Australia began moving towards its natural neighbors, the Asian countries, in the late 1980s.

By early 1990s, it appeared that Australia had decided to hitch its fortunes with Asia, but a change in the government also brought yet another shift in the foreign policy, this time back towards the United States of America and Europe.
Until the middle of the 20th century, Australia had been content to keep its relationship almost exclusively to Europe and United States. It was satisfied with this since most of its neighboring countries were still colonies of the European nations. The United States had the Philippines, the Netherlands had occupied Indonesia, while the British had colonized the Malay Peninsula and Burma and the French had Indo-China. There was no real threat to Australia. Or at least until the Japanese began their own expansion into Northeast Asia,

especially with the invasion of Manchuria. World War II and the rapid gains made by the Japanese forces in Asia was the first real security challenge for Australia.

The end of World War II and the ensuing liberation of the Southeast Asian nations only added pace to the change sweeping across the region, forcing the Australians to look at their immediate neighbors for the first time, though even until the mid-1970s, the Australians had kept their fortunes firmly with the Europeans. It was with this aim that Australia had participated in military campaigns, alongside the Western nations, in the Korean Peninsula as well as aiding the fleeing French forces in Cambodia and Vietnam.
By the late 1970s, the region’s security and strategic situation had totally changed. The Western powers, except for the United States, had totally disappeared from the region and so had their influence. The Southeast Asian economic miracle had bloomed and the region had its own new powers now with China and Japan being the biggest resident powers and even countries like Indonesia and Vietnam exerting influence over the events in the region.
Australia was thus pushed further into an embrace with the United States, with which it already had a common security pact.
However, at the same time, a sort of internal review of Australia’s strategic and foreign policy interests had begun at the government level. This was specially true during the 13-year reign of the Australian Labor Party and under the government of Prime Minister Paul Keating. It was during his reign that Australia first made a move to improve relations with its neighbors. Keating contributed in a significant manner to bolstering Australia’s ties with Asia. He admitted that Australia could no longer live the way it had been so far—ignoring Asia, while looking all the time at Europe and the U.S. The government decided that it had to develop extensive relations with Asian nations, not only from the economic perspective— since 60 percent of Australian exports were destined to Asia—but also from a strategic point of view. Driving this philosophy was the end of Cold War and the changing equations in Southeast Asia. With the United States losing bases in the Philippines, and the clear emergence of China as the biggest Asian power—and one willing to exercise its might far beyond its borders—forced the Australians to do a reengineering of their external relations.
Yet another factor that was driving this change was the migration from Asia. Until the 1970s, the Australian government had kept a strict control over immigration into Australia, following an unwritten “White Australia” policy, which meant that the government allowed only white Europeans or North Americans as immigrants, while keeping Asians out to a large measure. However, the last two decades have seen a sharp increase in the number of Asian immigrants, mostly from Indo-China, forcing the government to take note of this rapidly growing community. Partly the Asian migration forced the Australian government to look more closely at Asia, while partly it was this building of ties with Asia that prompted migration from Asian countries into Australia.
It was during this period of the Keating government that Australia began the reorientation of its foreign policy towards its Asian neighbors. Australia’s first tentative steps were to seek invitations to meetings of various Asian forums like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). In the early 1990s, Australia, along with key Asian nations formed APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a body aimed at strengthening economic ties between the countries of Asia and the Pacific.
This was a major initiative as it brought together 20 countries from the region, with a population of over two billion and a collective GDP of US$16 trillion in 1998, accounting for over half the world’s GDP.
Yet another initiative was the formation of Cairns Group, comprising countries with strong agricultural interests such as New Zealand, Canada, Argentina and Brazil and also smaller Asian economies of Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. The Cairns Group played an important role during the global negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) which led to creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995. Since then, Cairns Group has been playing an important role in the global trade negotiations, especially the agricultural sector. It is a key player in the on going negotiations on the agricultural trade currently proceeding at the WTO in Geneva.
Australia has also begun taking direct interest in the settlement of long pending disputes in its neighborhood, such as the Cambodian question. In the 1950s, when the International Control Commission for Cambodia was set up by the United Nations, Australia was conspicuous by absence, while remote countries like Poland and Canada were members of the body, displaying the lack of interest in Australia about developments in the region.
However, in the 1990s, Australia began taking an active interest in the settlement of Cambodian problem. This is just another example of how the Australian priorities have changed over the years.
Australia has also sought to develop bilateral relationship with its neighbors. The Keating government focused on improving ties with Australia’s biggest neighbor, Indonesia. The two countries signed the Timor Gap Agreement, resolving their territorial disputes over an area that is rich in natural resources. Australia has also signed several bilateral agreements with Indonesia and was one of the largest investors in the country’s mining sector. In November 2000, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer clearly stated that Australia was not in favor of holding a United Nations’ sponsored referendum in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh to determine if the people there want independence from Indonesia. With statements like these, Australia hopes to rebuild the trust and relationship that existed with Suharto’s Indonesia. Besides Indonesia, Australia has focused on China and Japan. The government has set up bilateral councils to promote relations with these three countries. However, the victory of the conservative Liberal Party in the elections in 1996 acted as brakes in this process of “Asianization” of Australia. John Howard, the new prime minister, began with a rather strident note, critical of the previous government’s Asia policy.
“Australia is not going to be begging to be let in,” he said, referring to the Keating initiatives with the Asian nations. Howard also clearly stated that Australia did not see a reduction in the role of the United States in the region. The new government thus began focusing on the relations with the United States as well, while going slow on the ties with Asian countries. In fact, Howard created a stir in 1999 during the international intervention in East Timor by saying that Australia was the “deputy sheriff” in the region with the U.S. being the sheriff.
Though Howard was forced to retract his statement, it received strong criticism from Australia’s neighbors and once again highlighted the differences between Asia and Australia.
However, the Australian initiative in East Timor did have its positive impact on certain smaller Southeast Asian nations which welcomed the emergence of another power in the region. The new power would not only help keeping the region’s “bullies” at bay but also as a counterbalance to the growing menace from the north—the increasing interest being taken by China in the political, strategic and economic developments in the region of South China Sea, which China considers as its interest zone. At the APEC summit, Australia again played a key role in trying to unite the countries economically. The summit saw an increasing tendency of the region for strengthening economic ties, especially in view of the roadblocks being faced by the WTO.
The Australians also used the occasion to bolster regional trade agreements and bilateral free trade agreements between various APEC member states.Australia also has a large bilateral aid program (about $1.3 billion for 1997-98, mostly in the form of grants) under which some 60 countries receive assistance. Papua New Guinea (PNG), a former Australian trust territory, is the largest recipient of Australian assistance.

From 1997-1999 Australia contributed to IMF program for Thailand and assisted Indonesia and PNG with regional environmental crisis and drought relief efforts. Australia provided the majority of disaster relief to PNG following a devastating tsunami in 1998.

Australia played a leading role in attempting to find a peaceful settlement between East Timor rebels and the Indonesian government and then later in organizing an international peacekeeping force. In September 1999, 4,500 personnel were sent to East Timor as a part of an international peacekeeping force in Australia’s biggest military involvement since the Vietnam War. Australia also hosted several thousand refugees from East Timor. Indonesia responded to Australia’s involvement in the conflict by seeking alternatives to Australian imports. Indonesians protested the Australian-led peacekeeping operation by demonstrating

in front of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. The peacekeeping operation saw its first conflict in October when members of the Indonesian security force were killed after exchanging gunfire with peacekeepers who had crossed into West Timor. The peacekeeping force will be cut in half when the 9,000 troops committed by the U.N. come in to oversee the transition to the new East Timor government. The uncertain political situation in Indonesia is a politically sensitive issue for Australia, given its history of close cooperation with that country during the long tenure of former Indonesian President Suharto.

Other Important Relations

Since the end of the World War II and following the withdrawal of the British military forces, especially its Navy, from the Southeast Asia Australia was forced to look for new allies, especially for its own defense. It was at this moment that the United States stepped in. The U.S. too had an increased interest in the Pacific and southern Indian Ocean area, where its influence before the second world war was minimal. Thus the two countries found common interest in developing a strong bilateral relationship.

Similarities in culture and historical background, and shared democratic values have made U.S. relations with Australia exceptionally strong and close. Ties linking the two nations cover the entire spectrum of international relations – from commercial, cultural and environmental contacts to political and defense cooperation. Two-way trade totaled more than $19 billion in 1998. That same year, over 200,000 Americans visited Australia and nearly 53,000 resided there.
A wide range of common interests and similar views on most major international questions reinforce this traditional friendship. For example, both countries sent military forces to the Persian Gulf in support of U.N. Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait. Both attach high priority to controlling and eventually eliminating chemical weapons, other weapons of mass destruction, and anti-personnel landmines. Both work closely on global environmental issues such as slowing climate change and preserving coral reefs. Australia has been a key U.S. ally on international negotiations on several arms limitation treaties.
The Australian government and opposition share the view that Australia’s security depends on firm ties with the United States, and the ANZUS Treaty enjoys broad bipartisan support. Recent presidential visits to Australia (in 1991 and 1996) and Australian prime ministerial visits to the United States (in 1995, 1997 and 1999) have underscored the strength of the alliance. The Australian’s quick reaction in sending troops to the troubled former Indonesian province of East Timor earned it huge praises from the United States and prompted the Australian prime minister to exclaim that Australia would be happy to play the role of a

deputy sheriff under the U.S. for maintaining security in the region.

But the relationship has its rough edges as well. Trade issues sometimes generate bilateral friction. In recent years, especially because of Australia’s large trade deficit with the U.S., Australians have protested what they consider U.S. protectionist barriers against their exports of wool, meat, dairy products, lead, zinc, uranium, and fast ferries. Australia also opposes U.S. sanctions legislation against Cuba, Iran and Libya. Australia remains concerned that U.S. agricultural subsidies, although targeted against European subsidies,

may undercut Australian markets for grain and dairy products in the Asia-Pacific region.

For its part, the U.S. has concerns about Australian barriers to imports of cooked chicken, fresh salmon and some fruits; subsidized Australian exports of leather for automobile upholstery; changes in Australian law governing intellectual property protection; and Australian government procurement practices. Both countries share a commitment to liberalizing global trade, however. They have worked together very closely through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and both are active members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

A number of U.S. institutions conduct scientific activities in Australia because of its geographical position, large land mass, advanced technology, and, above all, the ready cooperation of its government and scientists. Under an agreement concluded in 1968 and since renewed, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) maintains in Australia its largest and most important program outside the United States, including a number of tracking facilities vital to the program. Indicative of the broad-ranging Australian-U.S. cooperation on other global issues, a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) was

concluded in 1997, enhancing already close bilateral cooperation on legal and counternarcotics issues.
The ANZUS Security Treaty

The Australia, New Zealand, United States (ANZUS) Security Treaty was concluded in San Francisco on Sept. 1, 1951, and entered into force on April 29, 1952. The treaty bound the signatories to recognize that an armed attack in the Pacific Ocean area on any of them would endanger the peace and safety of the others. It committed them to consult in the event of a threat and, in the event of attack, to meet the common danger in accordance with their respective constitutional processes. The three nations also pledged to maintain and develop individual and collective capabilities to resist attack.

In 1985, the nature of the ANZUS alliance changed after the government of New Zealand refused access to its ports by nuclear-weapons-capable and nuclear-powered ships of the U.S. Navy. The United States suspended defense obligations to New Zealand, and annual bilateral meetings between the U.S. secretary of state and the Australian foreign minister replaced annual meetings of the ANZUS Council of Foreign Ministers. The first bilateral meeting was held in Canberra in 1985. At the second, in San Francisco in 1986, the United States and Australia announced that the United States was suspending its treaty security obligations to New Zealand pending the restoration of port access. Subsequent bilateral Australia-U.S. Ministerial (AUSMIN) meetings have alternated between Australia and the United States. The 12th AUSMIN meeting took place in Sydney in July 1998.
The Australia-U.S. alliance under the ANZUS Treaty remains in full force. Defense ministers of one or both nations often have joined the annual ministerial meetings, which are supplemented by consultations between the U.S. commander in chief for the Pacific and the Australian chief of defense force. There also are regular civilian and military consultations between the two governments at lower levels.
Unlike NATO, ANZUS has no integrated defense structure or dedicated forces. In fulfillment of ANZUS obligations, however, Australia and the United States conduct a variety of joint activities. These include military exercises ranging from naval and landing exercises at the task-group level to battalion-level special-forces training, assigning officers to each other’s armed services, and standardizing, where possible, equipment and operational doctrine. The two countries also operate several joint defense facilities in

Australia.