Australia ‘buying US hegemony’ in region, ex-PM Paul Keating says as he slams nation’s China policy

Keating said the Asean-Australia summit showed countries in the region were not doing Washington’s bidding to contain Beijing

Southeast Asian nations typically avoid a zero-sum position between superpowers US and China, analysts say, despite growing Chinese influence in the region

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Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating says Canberra’s policy is “at odds with the general tenor of Asean’s perceived strategic interests”. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:30pm, 6 Mar 2024Updated: 5:47pm, 6 Mar 2024

Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating’s tirade against his country’s China policy and claims that Asean nations are more balanced towards Beijing do not reflect the full picture of foreign policy in the region, analysts say.

At the three-day summit Asean-Australia special summit in Melbourne that began on Monday, Keating argued that Southeast Asian nations did not kowtow to the United States’ bidding to contain China.

His blistering statement on Tuesday focused attention on Asean’s foreign policy of China at the summit, as he accused Canberra of “buying US hegemony” in the region and warned that other nations were not interested in the same thing.

Analysts who spoke to This Week in Asia said countries in Southeast Asia preferred not to be seen as “taking sides” between the two superpowers, though growing Chinese influence had sown some distrust in the region.

Drawing on Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s comments during a summit press conference on Monday that the West’s China-phobia should not be imposed on Malaysia, Keating said unlike Australia, Malaysia was unwilling to do the US’ bidding to ring-fence China.

“That difficult task, the maintenance of US strategic hegemony, is being left to supplicants like us,” Keating said.

“What this week’s Asean meeting makes clear is that Australia and Australian policy is at odds with the general tenor of Asean’s perceived strategic interests – that is, interests which relate to China and the United States and relations between them.”

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