Engaging Asia

The ANU/Asialink Forum Australia’s Engagement with Asia helped to get Australia’s relationship with Asia back on the national agenda, according to Professor Tony Milner, Dean of Asian Studies, and co-convenor of the Forum with Ms Jenny McGregor of Asialink.

The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard and Labor’s Foreign Affairs spokesman, Mr Kevin Rudd both addressed the Forum. Other participants included Mr Hugh Morgan, President of the Business Council of Australia, Mr Donald McDonald, Chairman, ABC, Ms Sharan Burrow, President of the ACTU, Rev Tim Costello, World Vision Australia, Mr Richard Woolcott, The Asia Society, and Professor Michael Good, Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. 

“The willingness of high-profile stakeholders to attend demonstrated the concern present in the Australian community with respect to regional relations,” Professor Milner said.

“There was real debate about just what policies and strategies strengthen Australian interests in the Asian region, and that is healthy. But even more encouraging was the sense of bipartisan recognition that it is the achieving of effective relations with our region that defines this country in the international community.”  

Ms Geraldine Doogue from the ABC argued that Asian engagement should be a national project — a project that can unite Australians.  Professor Milner commented that “we did not get quite that far, but there was still a fair measure of consensus.”  

In a day of fast flowing debate, security inevitably attracted concern. Terrorism was seen as important by delegates, but by no means the only threat to security in the region — Taiwanese sovereignty, North Korea and the ‘arms race’ were stressed by security and defence experts, including Professors Des Ball and Paul Dibb of ANU.

In the session on Australia’s ‘soft-power’ capacities in the Asian region, ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb spoke of the record of the university sector, starting with the Colombo Plan, and Mr Sandy Hollway, outlined Australian opportunities in the coming Beijing Olympics.

Bilateral trade agreements were seen as the way forward by delegates in the ‘Economic Issues’ session, chaired by the Director of the Asia Pacific School of Economics and Government at ANU, Professor Andrew MacIntyre.

“The debate about the perils and promises of bilateral trade agreements is over for now in Australia, with most people believing pragmatism demands the pursuit of these bilateral arrangements. But we can expect that one of the next priorities for Australia will be coping with the consequences of everyone in the region seeking to secure their own bilateral agreements,” Professor MacIntyre said.

The Forum was held with support from the Myer Foundation.