Australian foreign policy leaves nation exposed to China rise: Paul Keating
Paul Keating says Australia’s foreign policy lacks ‘any strategic realism’ and is leaving the nation unable to manage the rise of China.
Paul Keating says Australia’s foreign policy lacks “any strategic realism” and is leaving the nation unable to effectively manage the rise of China as Donald Trump vacates the Asia Pacific region.
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The former prime minister said the debate on China had “remarkably degenerated” and the “whispered word communism of old is now being replaced by the word China”.
He said executive government had given too much say on foreign policy to security agencies and the process had been cheered on by “do-gooder journalists”.
Mr Keating said Australia should channel its focus on helping “design a new construct” that engages with China but prevents it from dominating the region.
“The reason we have ministers and cabinets is so that a greater, eclectic wisdom can be brought to bear on complex topics and particularly on movements of tectonic importance. This process not working in Australia,” Mr Keating told The Australian’s Strategic Forum in Sydney on Monday.
“The subtleties of foreign policy and the elasticity of diplomacy are being supplanted by a group of security agencies which are now effectively running the foreign policy of the country. And the media of course as being up to its ears in it.
“There is alarm in Australia about the scale and speed of China’s rise and this comes out particularly in the hysteria (of the media), especially in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age but run up in the rear by The Australian.
“Big states are rude and nasty but that does not mean you can afford not to deal with them, whether it be the United States or China.”
Mr Keating said Australia needed the United States to be a balancing force in the Asia Pacific but the US President was failing to take seriously multilateral events in the region, including the recent East Asia Summit.
“We need the United States as a balancing and conciliating power in the region. But it is very hard to be effective in that role if you don’t turn up. If you are not integral to and part of the strategic discussion. If you pawn the crown it is incapable of being redeemed at the same value,” he said.
“The global system is under stress and regional institutions are being marginalised. The President did not attend the East Asia Summit. He did not even direct is Secretary of State to attend the East Asia Summit.”
He also warned the United States was unlikely to return to its former influence regardless of who wins the next election.
“Indeed I think it is fair to say, that following this presidency, the United States will not return to being the state it was, regardless of whether a Republican or a Democrat occupies the White House,” he said.
Paul Keating’s full speech to The Australian’s Strategic Forum is below. Mobile readers can find it here.
However, Mr Keating praised Mr Trump for seeking to avoid military conflict with China.
“President Trump’s instincts are to avoid military complications,” Mr Keating said.
“The confrontation he most seeks to avoid is with China. From the Australian national interest we should applaud the president for that. But more than that keep on applauding him,” Mr Keating said.
“For President Trump alone is deciding the United States foreign policy and the news in that for Australia is that he has no appetite for a military (confrontation) with China, which parts of the east coast foreign policy and defence establishment would countenance. And not just part of the establishment in the United States, part of the same establishment in Australia too.
“So while the President’s instincts in this respect are good, and they are particularly good, he is nonetheless not personally able to divine a new international agenda. He will not be constructing a new world model.”
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