Illustration by Rocco Fazzari.

BUYING ACCESS

It is just over 30 years since I first watched Australia Inc being called up for national service in Southeast Asia by a weighty report, an enthusiastic prime minister and a sense of being passed by.

A lot of water has passed under the Australian-funded bridges on the Mekong since then as the power and financial balance has shifted away from Australia towards the then six, but soon to be eleven, ASEAN members.  But some things don’t change. The fathers of five of the ten men (and they were all men) at last week’s ASEAN Summit in Melbourne once ruled their countries.

So, the Albanese government is only the latest government to discover that Australia’s security and prosperity in Asia, and perhaps beyond, passes through the diverse cultural and political geography of these countries. And it involves dealing with whipsaw change like digitisation and apparent regression to norm like Joko Widodo putting his son into the Indonesian vice-presidency.

But last week’s gathering revealed some striking changes. Fifty years of formal relations with ASEAN has given Australia valuable diplomatic capital. (See: DIPLOMACY below) Universities are in the vanguard of the new Australia Inc investment interest in the region. The children of the country’s one million strong Southeast Asian diaspora now populate the sessions at these gatherings. And the geopolitics of national economic resilience mean the government is putting its balance sheet to work to underwrite a $2 billion investment promotion fund.

Southeast Asia economic strategy to 2040 author Nicholas Moore has used his report to try to straddle this changed zeitgeist throughout the Summit in a way that perhaps offers new pathways. With 23 of his 75 recommendations now addressed in various ways, he has a good strike rate. And the erstwhile investment banker now says the government has a clear role in setting a framework for investment in Asia. See the Summit outcomes here and the Melbourne Declaration here.

We have been here before and then lost interest for a range of reasons. But it is possible that climate change has provided the much-sought secret sauce for a new economic complementarity where resources and skills can be pooled via the diplomatic trust built up at these gatherings to deal with a shared environmental and economic dilemma. And that’s a dilemma which unresolved could create even bigger security challenges than the rise of China.

This edition is devoted to the outcomes, meetings, and sidelines of the 50th anniversary Summit.  But the usual monthly wrap is down below led by the two most interesting elections in Asia this year in Indonesia and Pakistan.

Greg Earl
Briefing MONTHLY editor

THE NEW AGENDA

Most important partner … Laos Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone with Anthony Albanese
Pictures: ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 

Investment: A $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Finance Facility run by Export Finance Australia will support trade and investment, especially in clean energy and infrastructure. Partnerships for Infrastructure initiative extended.

Engagement: An ASEAN-Australia Centre to drive engagement and greater Southeast Asia cultural literacy in Australia.

Education: 75 new Aus4ASEAN scholarships co-funded by universities and 55 emerging leader fellowships for Australian education.

Business: Ten Business Champions to improve public and private sector links into the region. (Listed below) New Landing Pads in Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City to boost technology exports and digital transformation. First Asia Business Exchange mission to Singapore and Malaysia in April focusing on energy transition.

Climate: Energy cooperation under the Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative to enhance regional energy policy and planning. Includes support for the ASEAN Centre for Energy and the establishment of an ASEAN Centre for Climate Change in Brunei.

Visas: Business Visitor Visa extended from three to five years. New Frequent Traveller stream providing 10-year visa for eligible countries.

Water:  $64 million to enhance maritime partnerships in line with regional country needs. New phase of Mekong-Australia Partnership in water security, climate change and transnational crime.

Timor: English language training to help Timor-Leste join ASEAN.

ASEAN man … Invested Report author Nicholas Moore   

BUSINESS: mixed outlook

Australian businesses based in Southeast Asia say their profit outlook is in line with expectations or better than expected but they face operational challenges, mainly due to cash flow difficulties, logistical problems, and political uncertainties.

An AustCham ASEAN members survey released at the Summit provides an interesting insight into the debate about stagnant Australian investment in the region by revealing that only eight per cent of respondents had set up in the past two years. On the other hand, 40 per cent had been established for 20 years.

The survey also has some mixed findings about attitudes to operating in Southeast Asia as the Moore Report recommendations are being implemented. About two thirds of respondents said ASEAN was a priority and their head offices understood the region. But there is a distinct uptick in negativity about the region as well with 22 per cent saying it was not a priority compared with four per cent in 2022. And 24 per cent of respondents say ASEAN experience is not valued in their wider business, which is up from 10 per cent in 2022.

Meanwhile, Vietnam continues its status over the past few years of these surveys as the favourite with 42 per cent of respondents already operating there and 19 per cent planning to expand there. But the Philippines is the big improver with only 28 per cent of respondents there but 18 per cent planning to step up there.

Upgrading in ASEAN

Source: AustCham ASEAN

THE NEW BUSINESS CHAMPIONS

Brunei:        Pristine Pacific Australia executive director Nur Rahman

Cambodia:  MGA Insurance Brokers executive chairman John George

Indonesia:   Western Sydney University chancellor Jennifer Westacott

Laos:           AgCoTech chairman Charles Olsson

Malaysia:    Lendlease CEO Tony Lombardo

Philippines: Macquarie chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake

Singapore:  ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott

Timor:         East Timor Trading Group chairman Sakib Awan

Thailand:    Linfox chairman Peter Fox

Vietnam:     Aurecon chief operating officer Louise Adams

EDUCATION: English major

Southeast Asian universities are moving forward with drawing on Australian expertise to develop their use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) as a result of discussions on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit.

ASEAN University Network executive director Choltis Dhirathiti used meetings with universities in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth along with participation in the Summit to develop a long-term plan for improving English language teaching in his more than 200 members.  In the first steps Western Sydney University will run workshops online and then onsite later this year in Ho Chi Minh City, followed by a Macquarie University onsite workshop, also in HCMC, alongside another AUN event.

Choltis says there is growing demand for English language instruction across Southeast Asian universities to meet labour market needs, attract foreign students from neighbouring countries, and service exchange students from outside the region who want international standard credits for their studies. “Parents want to encourage English study to open up job opportunities. The challenge is the universities offer English programs to attract students but their capability to deliver EMI is sometimes questionable,” he said in an interview.

He says Australian universities can help resolve this challenge for his member institutions because they have so much experience with foreign students, they are geographically close to Southeast Asia, and they have experience with developing English language teaching centres.

DIPLOMACY: watch, learn, engage

A new study of the ASEAN relationship has scored early wins for two of its recommendations that Australia should establish an ASEAN-Australia Centre and also help Timor Leste settle into the regional group. It has also backed support for innovations on climate change and the digital economy, and to develop better paths for long-term youth cooperation.

The study by academics from Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Cambodia says that after five decades of formal relations, Australia needs to be conscious of finding new models of engagement that will help sustain a peaceful and prosperous region into the future.  “Australia, perhaps more than some others, has been prepared to watch, learn and then engage in ways that have built a significant set of relationships and trust across Southeast,” says the study commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and published by the University of Tasmania.

Amid the broader debate about whether Australia should actually join ASEAN or abandon it due to its slow-moving diplomatic culture, the report argues that the “steady, incremental evolution” of Australia’s cooperation with the region through the ASEAN institution has proved to be an effective strategy for both sides. And amid some Australian oscillation over whether to focus on individual country relationships or the ASEAN institution, the report says the way Australia has maintained strong bilateral ties has contributed to its increasing range of activities with ASEAN itself.

Despite celebrating a successful 50 years, the report says the ASEAN-Australia relationship faces risks over how consistent Australia’s focus on this near neighbourhood will be; whether ASEAN can remain effectively unified; and how Australia should participate in ASEAN’s management of great power rivalry in the region.

Boys club … Anthony Albanese with the visiting leaders.

PHILIPPINES: coming out

The Philippines is on the rise after some chaotic years under Rodrigo Duterte with President Ferdinand Marcos shrugging off his father’s history to make himself the new partner on the block for Australia. Marcos kicked off the Summit week with a forthright address to Federal Parliament, followed by a Lowy Institute lecture, in both of which he tilted further away from dependence on China by declaring he would not give up one square inch of maritime territory.

His ABC interview underlined the shift: “I support AUKUS, I support the Quad and I think that this just represents a stronger front in terms of maintaining the peace, maintaining the peace in the South China Sea. It is a response really to a differing situation and more dangerous, more risky situation than we had before.”

He underlined his administration’s stability and economic reform focus by bringing a team of five Cabinet secretaries who oversaw 14 Australia/Philippines business agreements, the most for any country at the Summit. Marcos has a son studying in Australia, but it was more interesting to see that on the sidelines he was accompanied by his brother-in-law and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who is reportedly his preferred successor.

The two countries signed agreements on maritime cooperation, cyber and critical technology; cooperation on the digital economy; and cooperation between competition regulators.  Australia will also fund a $20 million judicial reform project after tensions during the Duterte years over judicial matters.

VIETNAM: farms and mines

Vietnam is treading in the footsteps of the earlier north Asian economic engagement with Australia by producing commodities in Australia for export, with agriculture worker visas and resources cooperation a key part of a stepped up Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Australia will join China, the US, Russia, India and South Korea in this level of diplomatic engagement with Vietnam, on top of the enhanced economic engagement agreement already in place. Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính travelled to Canberra after the Summit to sign the CSP, after also opening the new Australia Vietnam Policy Institute while he was in Melbourne. The new Vietnam Partnership and the Marcos address to Parliament underline how the more China-nervous Philippines and Vietnam are rising up the ranks of Australia’s ASEAN interlocutors.

Vietnam’s relatively new investment in mines and farms in Australia to fuel its industrialisation at home raises the prospect of it leapfrogging the older ASEAN members in economic integration with Australia. It was underlined by the creation of a new annual ministerial dialogue on resources and energy, and the provision of 1000 farm workers visas as part of the CSP. An ASEAN farm visa under the last government was abandoned.

The countries also agreed to expand cooperation on climate, environment and energy, and digital transformation and innovation; building on established collaboration across defence and security, economic engagement and education. This will include peacekeeping in South Sudan and elsewhere, law enforcement cooperation after some prisoner returns to Australia, and education cooperation to improve workforce skills.

In his speeches in Melbourne and Sydney, Chinh notably praised the way Australia had treated its Vietnamese background population despite previous bilateral issues over anti-government activity in Australia. He called for social and political organisations to play a role in increasing engagement between the countries.

Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính opening the Australia Vietnam Policy Institute in Melbourne.

MALAYSIA: swinging vote

Anwar Ibrahim is the longest serving high-profile politician in the ASEAN group both in and out of office, with a record of being both critical of and aligned with Australia. At this meeting the Prime Minister managed to simultaneously reduce the heat over the Gaza conflict, head off any criticism of China, and celebrate the longstanding people-to-people ties between the two countries.

This was the official annual bilateral meeting ranking behind the Parliamentary address by the Philippines and the new CSP with Vietnam leaders in the diplomatic hierarchy for the summit week. The leaders announced agreements on collaboration between technology companies; cooperation on maritime decarbonisation and clean energy; cooperation on maritime domain awareness and environmental protection; Australian support for Malaysia’s democratic reforms for government integrity and transparency; cooperation on cyber security threats and training; and joint training of sportspeople.

In an interesting comment on education links, Anwar said that while Malaysia had “benefited immensely” from sending students to Australia, he was “very excited” at the interest of Australian universities in expanding their programs into Malaysia “other than our continued sending students to Australia.”

SINGAPORE: exit tour

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is the regional leader Australian prime ministers like to cite partly because of his seniority and partly because he charts a nuanced line through the middle of most tensions. This was his likely last visit to Australia as leader and he didn’t disappoint with comments on the AUKUS submarines, a regional row over Singapore subsidising Taylor Swift concerts, and the need for Australia to remain engaged in Asia as a “resident power”.

In a potentially significant move the two countries agreed on principles for cross-border electricity trade as Singapore and the Sun Cable undersea solar electricity project continue negotiations on a potential deal.  They announced steps towards a green and digital shipping corridor which is relevant to the export of Australia’s renewable energy; the first SMEs to receive grants under a join innovation program; extra money for research on sustainability, innovation and food technology; and a new agreement border security and cross-border crime.

Koalaplomacy … one of the more popular Summit visitors

LAOS: 72 years and counting

This summit has required Australia to pay special attention over the past three years to one of the region’s smallest nations in Laos, which now holds the ASEAN revolving leadership post and has been Australia’s Dialogue Partner. Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone drew on a little appreciated 72-year-old diplomatic relationship when closing the gathering to declare Australia to be ASEAN’S “most important dialogue partner, engaging with ASEAN throughout its evolution.”

Australia used the meeting to elevate the bilateral relationship to a Comprehensive Partnership which will have four pillars: people, education and human resource development; economics, trade and investment; climate, environment and energy; and defence and law enforcement. Australia announced $3 million for Monash University’s World Mosquito Program to assist in the elimination of dengue fever in Laos.

INDONESIA: low emissions

This summit was a rare moment where Indonesia took a relative back seat in the Albanese government’s regional diplomacy and an insight into how relations are under some pressure over nickel resource management differences.

This was only a working visit for outgoing President Joko Widodo with no official statement from his meeting with Albanese after last year’s multiple meetings and optimistic talk about deep cooperation on electric vehicle supply chains. And so, if was left to Widodo to tell Indonesian media he would be talking about nickel production issues and that he would “encourage both countries to prioritise collaboration rather than competition.”

Albanese merely posted about his Widodo meeting that he looked forward to “continued collaboration with our close neighbour”, with no mention of electric vehicle cooperation or nickel pricing. Widodo also said he would be talking about defence cooperation with a new security agreement on the bilateral agenda and, with an eye to his legacy, he would be encouraging Australians to invest in his new national capital city.

THAILAND: mixed messages

Just when the Australian government might have been expecting respite from domestic debate about its clean energy policies, Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin put the issue on the Summit agenda by urging Anthony Albanese to slow the rollout of the government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard.

While Australia disputed the Thai government account. Thailand pointed out that it exported more than 200,000 cars to Australia a year, especially pick-up trucks and said Srettha had asked for the new standards to be gradually implemented.

Srettha also said Thailand was planning to cooperate with Australia on clean energy by developing an ecosystem for electric vehicles in Thailand financed by sustainability bonds and his bilateral meeting had also covered Thai farm workers coming to Australia. He said he met executives of six large companies in clean energy and finance during his visit.

DIPLOMATICALLY SPEAKING

"When the Southern Cross met the Pearl of the Orient, our friendship blossomed, withstood the test of war and flourished through the changes brought about by a world in flux."
- Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos

"We remain to be an important friend to the United States or Europe and here in Australia, they should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbours, precisely China … If they have problems with China, they should not impose it upon us. We do not have a problem with China."
- Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

"ASEAN countries have a common position on the South China Sea, but we also have different national perspectives … the positions are different because our situations are different."
- Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

DATAWATCH

Source: ISEAS State of Southeast Asia 2023 report/Briefing MONTHLY calculations

For more details: Briefing MONTHLY February 2023

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH

POLLING DAY

We nominated Indonesia as the election to watch in Asia this year in our January preview. However, despite a stronger than expected first round victory for Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto, Pakistan has provided the biggest surprise so far with Imran Khan challenging the military establishment from inside his jail cell.

1: SIXTH TIME LUCKY

President-elect Prabowo Subianto and supporters  Picture: @prabowo

Former prime minister John Howard was described as Lazarus with a triple bypass when he finally made it to the Australian prime ministership in 1996 – but he had nothing on Indonesia’s new president.

Prabowo Subianto has won the country’s leadership arguably after six attempts if his extra curricula military intervention in 1998, coat-trailing in the early 2000s, and then vice-presidential run in 2009 are included with his three formal campaigns. Along the way, and little appreciated, he has created the country’s third largest political party and largest post-Soeharto era party in Gerindra, although it only won 13 per cent of the general election vote compared with Prabowo’s 58 per cent presidential vote. And in his presidential campaigns he has been a military hardman candidate, then an Islamicist politician, and now an avuncular looking developmentalist.

That is a remarkable, if chequered, achievement by any standard of national leadership which, along with his family’s three generation history in Indonesian government, is worth bearing in mind when assessing what might happen over the next five years. But in the meantime, he now has to form a government.

Since the four parties backing Prabowo - Golkar, Gerindra, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party – only won about 43 per cent the parliamentary vote, his first task will be to woo some extra party support to secure a clear majority for passing legislation. That should be relatively easy given how outgoing President Joko Widodo eventually built an eight-party coalition with almost 90 per cent of the 580-seat parliament.

However, Widodo only built that super majority through ten ministerial reshuffles over the past five years at the cost of a bloated ministry of political representatives rather than the technocratic ministers who have been a feature of Indonesian ministries.  Prabowo will now face his same dilemma, combined with the added challenge of being under pressure to appoint ministers favoured by the still influential Widodo, who could function as the nucleus of a de facto Jokowi party in the government.

• Prabowo can only ride on Widodo’s popularity coattails for a limited time, says Natalie Sambhi, at The Brookings Institution

2: DISARMED

It is commonly thought that the army decides who will lead Pakistan, and then usually facilitates an election t0 broadly deliver that result. However, the latest vote has revealed the depth of public resentment in a youthful electorate over the army’s meddling in politics and government, as well as declining confidence in the traditional political parties.

Candidates associated with ousted prime minister Imran Khan's relatively new Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ran as independents after the party symbol was excluded from voting papers, but still won 93 out of the 266 single member seats. That left the army-favoured traditionally dominant parties well behind with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) winning 75 seats while the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won 54. They have both been boosted with seats reserved or women and minorities with PTI further possibly losing out because it is not considered a legitimate party for the allocation of those seats.

The result has seen some analysts drawing comparisons with the public rejection of military political dominance which was seen in Myanmar in 2021 or Egypt in 2011. But the Pakistan situation seems more likely to end up with the traditional parties running an unstable government under constant pressure from the PTI opposition emboldened by the sense that the army has lost credibility.

The Sharif family run PML-N has rearranged its forces with patriarch and former prime minister Nawaz stepping back to take token responsibility for the poor result, but handing the prime ministership to his younger brother Shehbaz and the premiership of Punjab state to his daughter Maryam. Meanwhile the Bhutto family-led PPP patriarch Asif Zardari is set to become President, while the PPP supports the PML-N government but stays out of the ministry to avoid being blamed for tough economic and spending reforms which will be required.

• Adeel Malik, at Project Syndicate, says the military and political establishment faces a revolt by a growing middle class over the failure to deliver on economic aspirations.

ASIAN NATION

SAVING PNG

Winning hearts and minds with rugby Picture: ABC

When Prime Minister James Marape told the Australian Parliament and the broader community on February 8 not to “give-up” on his country, he presumably was not contemplating the test that would come less than two weeks later with dozens of people killed in tribal violence.

As the first Pacific leader to address the Parliament, he acknowledged the significance of the bilateral relationship declaring: “Papua New Guinea has a very special and very unique relationship with Australia. We are the only country Australia has birthed.”

Despite facing speculation about his leadership, Marape appealed for continued Australia support for the governance reforms he said he was determined to pursue. “It is true our people need greater empowerment in many aspects of their life. But not all is bad. Not all is bad,” he said.

Like the riots in Port Moresby in January, the latest tribal violence has raised questions about the complicity of the country’s security services in civil turmoil, with for example, the leakage of high-powered weapons to tribal antagonists.

But Australia has stepped up the broadening of the diplomatic and development aid relationship since the speech with new spending on health infrastructure, sports engagement in rugby, assistance for trade negotiations, transport for Olympic athletes, and police assistance.

WHOLEGRAIN DIPLOMACY

First there was Team Australia and then whole-of-government statecraft, now everybody is being recruited to the diplomatic service. The Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue (AP4D) has called for a much more inclusive approach to international policy than already joined-up approach implied by its name.

In a new report it has called for business, science and technology, education, sports, culture, media and civil society representatives to be more formally brought into the Triple D process to create a “whole-of-nation” approach to engagement with the world.

“At a minimum, a whole-of-nation approach implies that global engagement is not just done by a few people working in international affairs but is the role of a far wider constituency. At its most expansive it sees Australia’s “modern national identity” as a crucial source of national power,” the report argues. “This means that Australians need to update their mental model of who does foreign policy.”

The report says consultations with 113 individuals from 93 organisations showed broad support a whole-of-nation approach particularly to deal with the scale of international problems such as climate change and geopolitical competition.

DEALS AND DOLLARS 

CHINA DINING

Trade minister Don Farrell has talked up a 30 per cent increase in Australian trade with China as the government appears to be confident of resolving the impediments to wine and lobster exports.

After talks with Chinese trade minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of the World Trade Organisation summit in Abu Dhabi at the end of February, he said he was confident there would be a resolution of the wine tariffs within “a few weeks”.  He said he had also pushed for action to free up the lobster trade and Australian officials had provided detailed information on this trade which had been requested by China.

On March 11, China's ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian also said the remaining restrictions on wine, lobster and red meat imports valued at $2.5 billion were "on the right track" to be lifted by the end of the month. "The relationship has stopped freefalling and stopped deteriorating," he said.

While Farrell continued to promote trade diversification via new trade agreements in places including India, Europe and the United Arab Emirates, he told The Australian Financial Review that Australia’s China trade could still grow from $300 billion to $400 billion a year as the government brought more stability to the relationship. See: ON THE HORIZON

MINING MYANMAR

Australian-linked mining companies have been accused of continuing to operate in Myanmar, helping to support the military junta and the junta-dominated mining sector to survive international sanctions.

Human rights group Justice for Myanmar says in a report that 10 company networks that have remained active in Myanmar following the coup attempt. And it says another six company networks that are not currently active in the mining sector but remain registered in Myanmar should be monitored in case they resume operations.

The Mines Against Humanity report says the companies are wrongly treating the junta as if it were the government of Myanmar when it is facing widespread opposition from several different groups. It uses the report to urge the Australian government to impose sanctions on mining enterprises controlled by the junta; to widen sanctions against the junta’s sources of funds, arms and jet fuel, in coordination with its allies; and to investigate sanctions-busting activity and penalise or prosecute companies.

This report came as Australia did impose new targeted sanctions on the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank and Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank, two of the major banks that support Myanmar's state-owned enterprises. It also sanctioned Asia Sun Group, Asia Sun Trading Co Ltd, and Cargo Link Petroleum, which the government says have supplied jet fuel to the Myanmar military.

POWERING INDIA

An Australian solar energy company will build a manufacturing plant in India after winning a $50 million plus installation contract in the US where China-made renewable technology is losing favour.

Rapid solar rollout company 5B, which is backed by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, will build the US regulation compliant India plant in partnership with local panel maker and engineering group Waaree Renewable Technologies.  The project will give some practical backing to the Albanese government’s efforts to make renewable energy cooperation a key part of the bilateral relationship.

The company’s technology prefabricates 50-kilowatt solar arrays that can be then unfolded on site off the back of a truck and ground mounted to accelerate solar installation. Rapid solar deployment is crucial to increasing the pace of the energy transition after it has fallen behind schedule, leading to doubts over the ability of advanced countries to hit emissions reduction targets.

ON THE HORIZON

CHINA DREAMING

Stabilisation mission … Penny Wong and Wang Yi

The likely lifting of the final Chinese trade impediments to Australian exports point to a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, possibly by the end of March. The momentum towards a more stable relationship comes as a Guardian opinion poll shows two-thirds of Australians think the relationship with China is “complex” and must be “managed”, 20% think it is a “threat to be confronted” and 13% described it as a “positive opportunity to be realised”.

Australian officials are reportedly planning for Wang to visit in coming weeks as both countries also prepare for Premier Li Qiang to make a state visit later in the year. It would be the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister since 2017. But one extra complication is that Wang may be replaced by a new foreign minister and then return full-time to his previous, more senior role as the State Councillor overseeing foreign affairs.

The Albanese government appears to be determined to maintain momentum towards stabilising the relationship with stepped up ministerial meetings despite the latest tensions over the suspended death sentence for academic Yang Hengjun and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warning over an unspecified country meddling in Australian politics.

Meanwhile plans are also underway for Australia to host the seventh Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, although the federal government is again stressing that no dates have been locked in. The last dialogue was held in late 2022 when Foreign Minister Penny Wong met then State Councillor Wang Yi in Beijing.

ABOUT BRIEFING MONTHLY

Briefing MONTHLY is a public update with news and original analysis on Asia and Australia-Asia relations. As Australia debates its future in Asia, and the Australian media footprint in Asia continues to shrink, it is an opportune time to offer Australians at the forefront of Australia’s engagement with Asia a professionally edited, succinct and authoritative curation of the most relevant content on Asia and Australia-Asia relations. Focused on business, geopolitics, education and culture, Briefing MONTHLY is distinctly Australian and internationalist, highlighting trends, deals, visits, stories and events in our region that matter.

Partner with us to help Briefing MONTHLY grow. For more information please contact [email protected].