HDFF Team: Dr. Wilfried A. Herrmann, Adam Martin, Diana Richter
On Thursday, 17th of July 2014 the HDFF Team attended a public forum organized by ISIS on “ASEAN-Australia Relations in Asia’s Transformation.” The moderator of the event was Prof. Dr. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Director of the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISI.S) in Thailand and Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the Faculty of Political Science at Chulalongkorn University. The opening remarks were presented by H. E. James Wise, Australian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, who gave a short overview about the influence of the British Empire, the beginning of the relationship between ASEAN and Australia in 1974, and Australia’s awareness of its geography when it began to recognize its neighbors and economy.
Dr. John Blaxland, Senior Fellow at the Strategic and Defense Studies Centre at the Australian National University (ANU)
The first speaker was Dr. John Blaxland, Senior Fellow at the Strategic and Defense Studies Centre at the Australian National University (ANU). He is a former Chief Staff Officer for Joint Intelligence Operations, at Australia’s Joint Operations Command Headquarters and was Australia’s Defence Attaché to Thailand and Myanmar from 2008 to 2010. He holds a PhD in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. Because of his background as an expert in strategic and defense studies, his presentation was focused on security and the question: Security from Asia or security in Asia?
He started with the history of the Second World War through the Cold War, the 16,000 prisoners of war (POW) and the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1952; an effort to step out of Britain’s shadow. Since then there has been a range of million-dollar programs and bilateral military exercises, including operations like InterFET, in which Australian soldiers conducted exercises in order to provide peace and stability in East Timor. The relationship between Australia and ASEAN has been an incremental process, with a lot of challenges resulting from the cultural, ethnical, linguistic, and historical diversity, which makes unity difficult, Dr. Blaxland said.
In 1989 Australia established the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The founding members were Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States. A few years later China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia and Vietnam joined APEC.
Since 1993, the ASEAN Regional Forum has exchanged information and networked extensively for more transparency relating to defense policy. A great deal of mutual confidence has been built through cooperative activities. These activities have focused on non-traditional security issues such as humanitarian aid, disaster relief, maritime security and counter terrorism. Additional challenges include trafficking in persons, regional economic integration, and disaster management, for example the 2004 tsunami.
Dr. John Blaxland (left) with HDFF Executive Director Dr. Wilfried A. Herrmann
But why should Australia care? The reason is that Australia relies heavily on SLOCs (Sea Lanes of Communication). They trade with and through the ASEAN region and the Indian Ocean, which has seen an increase in trade and security significance in the region. Beside the non-traditional security concerns, there are traditional security and strategic concerns as well. Actual incidents between claimant states of the South China Sea, such as the use of water cannons and white/ red painted vessels engaging each other, are still below the perceived threshold to trigger war. However, the potential for escalation still exists. As a result, Australia and ASEAN are compeled to find collaborative solutions. For example, in the Deep South of Thailand, there are strategic concerns regarding the borders. Dr. Blaxland is convinced that this is a multi-facetted problem, whose complexity goes back well beyond 2004, but also exists as a result of religious difference, organized crime, access to resources, police-military rivalry, the concept of Thai national identity, Bangkok’s distracting problems, and jihadism. Additionally, Indonesia’s internal challenges relating to democratic transition and reform, sustainable development, and extremism makes it increasingly difficult for Australia to rely on ASEAN as a cooperative partner in regional issues. Myanmar is in fear of external interference and internal disintegration, while at the same time struggling with democratic consolidation and sustainable development. On the other hand, there are some trade partnerships such as the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), Trans-Pacific Partnerships, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) for regional economic integration, which make ASEAN a highly competitive economic region with single market and production base. Dr. Blaxland’s prospects for the future of ASEAN are positive for managing power rivalries and their economic prospects. At the moment, it is still challenging for Thailand and other ASEAN members to keep commitments and to reach their goals. As a result, Australian corporations are hesitant to invest directly in ASEAN.
The second guest-speaker at the ISIS Public Forum was Umesh N. Pandey. He currently works as the editor for ‘Asia Focus’ at The Bangkok Post. He gave a short commentary on financial activities in some Australian markets and asserted that many companies are now investing in mining. He feels that there are too few investments from Australia, despite increasing flows among ASEAN.
The Australian Gwen Robinson, senior fellow at the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and senior Asia editor at the Nikkei Asian Review, based her presentation on natural resources and the economy. For Australia, ASEAN is the 4th largest trading partner. Indonesia plays a key role as an economic partner because of geography. However, Indonesia is not the most powerful trading partner in ASEAN and its domestic issues have recently become a concern. About 7 to 8% of the trade between Australia and Asia are in North Asia, China and Japan, with only two percent with ASEAN. Ms. Robinson also stated that Australia has concerns about corruption in ASEAN countries.
Kavi Chongkittavorn, assistant group editor of The Nation Media Group was the last guest speaker at the public forum. He said the biggest challenges between Australia and ASEAN plus China are in the sectors of security; for example peacekeeping operations and connectivity. He wants closer relationships between ASEAN and Australia which has not been implemented until now; there exists no Australian –ASEAN summit even though the relationship is 40 years old. His prediction is that the cooperation between these regions will be closer in the future. Indeed, ASEAN has differences in culture, politics, development, and history, but unity within ASEAN seems to be gradually increasing. He feels that Australian companies should be encouraged to invest in ASEAN.
At the end, the audience had the chance to participate in the discussion. All in all, The ISIS Public Forum was proved to be a very impressive and successful event.
Comments are closed