Anthony Albanese’s NATO trip must include a visit to Ukraine

Anthony Albanese should meet with Volodymyr Zelensky, writes Peter Jennings. Picture: Colin Murty

Should Anthony Albanese go to Kyiv at the end of this month and meet Ukraine’s remarkable President, Volodymyr Zelensky? Absolutely, he should. The Prime Minister will never make an easier decision in office.

Last week Albanese was hesitant about accepting Zelensky’s invitation. He said at a press conference on Friday, “I will take appropriate advice. And obviously there are security issues as well in terms of such a visit.”

Albanese needs to make a decision, not take advice. Going to Kyiv is the right thing to do, not only to support Ukraine but also to make the point that all democracies must work together to resist growing threats from author­itarian Moscow and Beijing.

Albanese’s security is not to be taken lightly, but he will be no less secure than British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has visited Kyiv twice, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, and dozens of other European and world leaders who have gone to the Ukrainian capital.

Additional to the formidable Ukrainian forces that protect Zelensky, Albanese would likely travel with a military close personal protection team. I have travelled with these folk in Afghanistan and Iraq – they were there to protect the Defence Force Chief, not me. Albanese can be confident about his security.

The reason for going would not simply be for a photo opportunity with Zelensky, who has emerged out of a comedy and acting background to become one of the leading political figures of this century. The reason for going is because Australia has a desperate interest in Ukraine enduring through this war.

Albanese should continue to help Zelensky in Ukraine’s moment of greatest need in the same way we want international support to resist Beijing’s bullying and attempts to dominate the Indo-Pacific.

We have a good story to tell. With solid bipartisan backing the Morrison government provided ammunition, artillery, Bushmaster and M113 armoured vehicles, personnel equipment, a substantial shipment of coal and humanitarian support. However, Ukraine’s needs are growing because of the grindingly destructive nature of Russia’s artillery and missile bombardments.

Kyiv has, I think, permanently defeated the Russians in achieving Vladimir Putin’s ambition to take over the capital and install a puppet government. The Russian military now seems intent on destroying in the east of Ukraine what they can’t take by force.

Ukraine still could find its economy smashed and its ability to export severely constrained by Russian assaults on key port cities in the south of the country.

While the Ukrainian military targets its Russian military foes, the Russians are indiscriminately killing civilians by hitting cities with artillery barrages.

Unless more international support is forthcoming the risk is that Ukraine will be ground into submission through exhaustion and lack of military and humanitarian supplies.

An Albanese visit would be a reminder to his own government, the Australian people and the world that we need to keep supporting Ukraine so as not to send a message to authoritarian bullies that the democracies will give up when the pressure is sustained.

Australia cannot afford for Chinese President Xi Jinping to conclude that he can take over Taiwan and dominate the Indo-Pacific simply by being willing to hold out for longer than the democracies in a tough conflict.

A visit to Kyiv should therefore see Albanese offer more support to Ukraine including more military equipment and humanitarian and economic assistance.

One of Kyiv’s most pressing needs is for long-range 155mm artillery ammunition. We could quickly accelerate production of this and other munitions. We could draw on Australian Defence Force Bushmaster and Hawkei protected mobility vehicles with remote weapons stations and rapidly replace them from working production lines.

Soon Ukraine will need sea mine countermeasures equipment and patrol vessels to enable a reopening of the Odesa port. Australia has the technology and intellectual property to provide this equipment.

Whatever support is provided now will be returned across time with the economic opportunities that will come from helping to rebuild Ukraine and, more important, in the political support that we can expect from a democratic Europe facing shared security concerns.

Albanese’s visit to Europe is to participate in a heads of government NATO summit in Madrid at the end of the month. NATO meetings come and go, but this one will be important after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Finland’s and Sweden’s requests to join the alliance. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has said the Madrid meeting will agree “a major strengthening of our posture (requiring) more robust and combat-ready forward presence, even higher readiness, and more prepositioned equipment and supplies”.

During the Afghanistan conflict the Rudd and Gillard governments pressed to have a seat at the NATO table as one of the most consequential non-NATO coalition members. Australia has since provided Defence secondees into NATO headquarters in Brussels working on China and Indo-Pacific security.

Albanese’s presence at the NATO meeting creates an opportunity for Australia to recast its relationship with the alliance and, indeed, to restart a flagging set of European relationships since Mathias Cormann left the previous cabinet. This would be a departure for Labor, where the policy tendency has been to show Australia’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific by underplaying European connections.

The world has changed. On Monday The Australian’s Commentary page had an article from Britain’s First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, writing on Britain’s Indo-Pacific tilt, while Germany, France, The Netherlands and other European countries have developed Indo-Pacific strategies.

We have no reason to expect practical European interest in our security concerns unless we are prepared to engage with their key issues. This is a point Tokyo understands because Russia presents a continuing danger to Japan’s northern islands.

The key message for Australia is that, facing the emerging authoritarian threat, the security of the world’s true democracies is indivisible. We should remember Benjamin Franklin’s comment at the signing of the US Declaration of Independence: “We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

At Madrid, Albanese should press for a formalised special relationship between NATO and Australia, lifting us beyond the superficial “partners across the globe” relationships that NATO maintains with many countries.

Australia’s previous role with NATO in Afghanistan, our support for Ukraine and our shared interests with European countries in resisting Moscow and Beijing mean that our ties to this key alliance are more consequential than either side recognises.

Just as previous Labor governments did, Albanese has a chance to press for a senior seat at the NATO table, not least to have a voice on Ukrainian developments and to engage NATO planners on Beijing.