Australia can shape peaceful Asia-Pacific without taking sides in great power rivalry: Penny Wong

Viewing the future of the region through ‘binary’ lens means countries’ own national interests can fall out of focus, warns Australia’s foreign minister

Wong also cautions against ‘frenzied’ speculation about regional flashpoints such as Taiwan, calls for a peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues

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Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong addresses the National Press Club in Canberra on April 17, 2023. Photo: AAP Image via AP

Published: 7:05pm, 17 Apr 2023Updated: 7:19pm, 17 Apr 2023

Australia can determine its own interests and shape a peaceful Asia-Pacific without taking sides with bigger powers, aligning with Southeast Asia and other countries in the region, the country’s foreign minister has said.

In an hour-long speech and a question and answer session at the national press club in Canberra on Monday, Penny Wong said countries like Australia did not need to “waste energy [expressing] shock or outrage” at a rising China, for instance, but instead focus on “pressing for our own advantage”.

She said Australia and its Asia-Pacific neighbours like Southeast Asia could own the region they wanted without being held beholden to others, and could adopt policies that pursued peace and averted conflict.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong (left) with her Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah in June 2022. Wong has visited every Southeast Asian country except Myanmar in the past year. Photo: EPA-EFE/Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“We deploy our own statecraft towards shaping a region that is open, stable and prosperous, where no country dominates, and no country is dominated,” she said.

Many commentators and strategists were using “a binary” lens to interpret developments in the region, Wong said. “But viewing the future of the region simply in terms of great powers competing for primacy means countries’ own national interests can fall out of focus,” she said.

Reflecting on her visits to every Southeast Asian country except Myanmar in the past year, Wong said this was also what Asean and others in the region wanted.

Asean has stood for a peaceful region advocating for “multilateralism, partnership and cooperation” and expressing concerns over actions that could “eventually lead to miscalculation … among major powers”.

Middle powers like Australia and Southeast Asia had agency to create that peaceful region, she said.