ASEAN Expanding “China Plus One” Regional Links
(4 March 2024 – Southeast Asia) The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations members (ASEAN) will descend on Melbourne for a three-day summit to commemorate 50 years of relations between the regional bloc.
Australia is actively recalibrating itself as a “middle power” in Southeast Asia and the Indo Pacific as China’s growing influence complicates economic and geopolitical relations across the region. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong are seeking to recuperate ties with ASEAN after a period of perceived non-alignment following the United States influence as relations with China soured.
Australia and the Philippines signed a pact on maritime cooperation, a key issue for a country contending with China over territorial rights in the South China Sea. Canberra is determined to show that Australia is a reliable partner in its own right as disputed claims simmer in the South China Sea between China, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
“One of the Philippines’ advisers actually told me, ‘Australia don’t have a foreign policy. It’s the foreign policy of the US’. But under the new government, there’s a change of perspective” Lowy Institute Research Fellow Rahman Yacoob commented to Bloomberg’s Ben Westcott and Philip Heijmans.
Source: Bloomberg
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