Engaging with Asia must not mean disengaging with the Pacific
Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese have avoided Paul Keating’s ideological approach to foreign policy by investing so much attention in Australia’s near neighbour in the past seven months.
Paul Keating was given to policy by slogans, particularly foreign policy. I remember watching a Sunday morning television interview with him when he first became prime minister and he proclaimed that Australia’s foreign policy would be engagement with Asia.
I didn’t think it would have been worthy of reporting on news bulletins later that day but, on the contrary, this became a catch cry for Keating’s foreign policy.
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Alexander Downer was Australia's longest serving foreign minister, from 1996 to 2007, and most recently Australian High Commissioner to the UK.
