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Foreign Affairs & Security

Yesterday

Businesses ‘social licence’ now hinges on helping safeguard our regional interests, according Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy.

Business enlists in Team Australia in the Pacific

Business engagement in diplomatic initiatives is welcome, but engagement in the Pacific must be in the best interests of customers, shareholders and employees.

  • The AFR View

This Month

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Who can best manage Trump – Albanese or Dutton?

Instead of caution and guile from Canberra, we have the absurd posturing of the prime minister and opposition leader on who is best fitted to influence the mad king.

  • James Curran
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What Justin Trudeau’s exit means for progressive politics

Canada’s prime minister is only the latest left-of-centre political leader to leave office in a fog of disillusion and domestic discontent.

  • James Curran

Elon Musk, the most powerful troll on Earth, targets the UK

As the world’s richest man and a member of Trump’s team, Musk has enormous influence, and his admirers in both America and Britain have taken up the cause.

  • Michelle Goldberg

Marching blindfolded into the new Cold War

A new report into the funding of Australian strategic think tanks raises consequential issues for Australia’s global engagement

  • James Curran
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Members of a Virgin Australia crew were allegedly assaulted in Nadi, Fiji.

Man charged with sexual assault of Virgin Australia crew member in Fiji

The man is facing one count of rape and sexual assault and is due to appear in Nadi Magistrates Court on Monday, local media reported.

  • AAP
Members of a Virgin Australia crew have allegedly been assaulted at Nadi, Fiji.

Virgin Australia crew allegedly sexually assaulted, robbed in Fiji

Fiji police confirmed it was investigating allegations of sexual assault and theft involving Australian air crew during New Year’s parties.

  • James Hall

December 2024

University of Queensland chancellor Peter Varghese conducted the review.

Why governments should fund think tanks that make life difficult for them

Without allowing some unencumbered funding and a safe space for free thinkers within the system, we will be poorer for it in a policy sense.

  • John Lee
Buildings damaged after magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes near Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Cruises diverted as aid is rushed to quake-struck Vanuatu

At least 14 people were killed and hundreds injured in two earthquakes in the South Pacific nation, and Australian rescue crews and medical teams are being urgently deployed.

  • James Hall and Tom McIlroy
Defence Minister Richard Marles visiting a naval base in Plymouth.

Trump won’t torpedo AUKUS subs deal, says Marles

Despite fears the president-elect will cool on the pact as the US struggles to produce enough submarines, the Australian defence minister says he will back the deal.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Premier Jacinta Allan said Jewish Australians “deserve action that makes a difference”.

Allan antisemitism response condemned as ‘too slow’

The Victorian premier is mulling new police powers, as two events in Sydney on Sunday underlined how the war in Gaza is stirring tension in Australia.

  • Euan Black
A Palestinian woman among rubble after Israeli shelling in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Right’s cancel culture distorts diplomacy

The government is under fierce attack for its UN voting patterns on Gaza, but it is voting in keeping with global norms.

  • James Curran
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape in Sydney on Tuesday.

Bigger than sport: PNG’s PM on getting an NRL team

James Marape, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, says the bid to join the NRL goes way beyond sport and commerce for the country, and will also benefit Australia.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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Middle East braces for fresh chaos after Assad’s fall

Euphoria has swept the streets of Damascus after Bashar al-Assad’s brutal reign suddenly ended. But what comes next?

  • James Curran
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A crazy six hours in Seoul and the fragility of democracy

A presidential brain snap in South Korea has revived dark memories of the country’s past, with potentially damaging geopolitical ripples across north-east Asia.

  • James Curran
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November 2024

Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian’s call for closer defence ties glosses over Beijing’s aggressive tactics in the South China Sea and its tacit support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.

No ambassador, we are not ready to get tight with China on defence

While the relationship must progress, glossing over the facts and real risks is dangerous – Canberra and Beijing are far from ready for closer defence ties.

  • Jennifer Parker
All aboard: US navy chief Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Australian counterpart Vice Admiral Mark Hammond and UK Royal Navy First Sea Lord Admiral Ben Key meeting in July.

This is why we don’t need to worry about the Brits and AUKUS

The alliance sets the tone for the UK to make a distinctive contribution to NATO’s ability to retain sea control of the North Atlantic.

  • Alessio Patalano
President Donald Trump was more polite to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2019. New US tariffs will change that.

Trump’s tariff war won’t spare America’s allies

Donald Trump is promising 25 per cent tariffs on supposedly close allies like Canada and Mexico as well as China. Where does that leave Australia?

  • Jennifer Hewett
Australians Matthew Norman (right), Si Yi Chen (centre) and Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen in court during their trial in Denpasar, Bali in October 2005.

Dealing under way to bring Bali Nine back to Australia

But the Australians convicted in Indonesia of smuggling heroin would have to serve their sentences at home, the government says.

  • Poppy Johnston
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Trump’s foreign policy hand is stronger than you might think

Fears of American isolationism ignore that the president-elect’s international relations capabilities might be better than many think once he takes office.

  • James Curran
The missiles are flying as both sides escalate ahead of possible negotiations.

West must not flinch in helping Ukraine now

There is something else at stake as Ukraine fights on: the self-respect of the democratic nations that have backed them this far.

  • The AFR View
Round two of the trade war may lie ahead.

The big split on China at the heart of Trump’s new team

Donald Trump and JD Vance have assembled a team of strident China hawks, hellbent on countering the rise of Beijing, but is it all for show?

  • James Curran
Donald Trump back in the Oval Office may not bring the results we expect.

Trump is all power with no grand strategy

The US president-elect’s delight in being unpredictable may end up dissipating US power rather than strengthening it. Australians may come to regret that.

  • Peter Varghese
China’s President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Trump picks put Australia in the crossfire with China

The frenzy around a reinvigorated Republican administration can only make the voter ride much bumpier for everyone, Anthony Albanese included.

  • Jennifer Hewett
China could be hit with tariffs on its goods of up to 60 per cent, which will damage its economy and indirectly Australia’s too.

China should practise what it preaches on free trade

The best way Beijing can persuade the US it is playing fair is to open up its domestic market so America can share in its success.

  • The AFR View

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs