AUKMIN meeting will set strategic agenda for 2022

This week’s meetings between Scott Morrison, Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Britain’s foreign and defence secretaries in Sydney are timely and strategically important for both nations, and for the free world. They will be the first face-to-face AUKMIN talks between the longstanding, close allies since the pandemic began. If, as reported from London, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is a frontrunner to emerge as British prime minister to replace Boris Johnson, her engagement with Australia and the Asia-Pacific region is even more important. As she told Ticky Fullerton in an exclusive interview in London, trade and investment are central to her thinking as Britain seeks to force deeper economic and security ties with allies such as Japan, India and Indonesia as part of its Indo-Pacific tilt. Australia has led the way in building this “network of liberty”, Ms Truss said.

The AUKMIN talks will build on the landmark AUKUS strategic partnership announced in September between Australia, Britain and the US, which will lead to the development of an Australian nuclear-powered submarine fleet. The talks follow the signing in December of the Australia-UK free-trade agreement, the first such agreement finalised by Britain since Brexit.

As trade secretary until September, Ms Truss was one of the main drivers of the FTA, with Australian ministers Simon Birmingham and Dan Tehan and high commissioner George Brandis in London.

In the discussions with the Morrison government, Ms Truss and British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will be focusing on defence co-operation and advancing the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement. Tensions in the Asia-Pacific amid China’s campaign of economic coercion will also feature. Mr Dutton said that as members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, the ministers would also cover cyber security, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities.

As Australian Strategic Policy ­Institute executive director Peter Jennings told The Australian, a stronger British presence in the region would be a counterpoint to China’s growing influence. “What seems to have had China most annoyed in the past 12 months has been when you get new groupings announced, which are really about pushing back against China,” he said. “Let’s have more of them. China really doesn’t like to see the major democracies co-ordinating their actions to resist its pressure.”

Australia’s ties to Britain, dating from the 18th century, make it our oldest ally. In the face of rising Chinese aggression and post-Cold War uncertainties, the relationship with Britain has taken on new importance, in tandem with our strong ties to the US, Japan and other Asian and Pacific nations. Writing in The Australian, Senator Payne says countries around the world are focused on the Indo-Pacific as the region that will shape the global environment more than any other in the coming decades. At the same time, she acknowledges, nations on both sides of the Atlantic are also focused on an increasingly disruptive Russia.

Australia had sought, and welcomed, an increased focus from London on the Indo-Pacific in light of the most significant strategic realignment since World War II. “In the 21st century, a fit-for-purpose, well-supported, functional international system is vital to the health of our national economies and international stability,’’ she writes. “Whether in relation to the democratic backsliding in Hong Kong, North Korean missile tests or the Myanmar military regime inflicting horrific violence on its own people, our strength is in speaking and acting with a common voice, committed to human rights and democratic freedoms.’’ The AUKMIN meeting will set much of the regional security agenda for the year ahead.