Albanese faces questions over agenda of APEC summit
Leading strategic analyst Peter Jennings says Anthony Albanese should send Richard Marles or Penny Wong to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
Strategic Analysis Australia director Peter Jennings says Anthony Albanese should send Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles or Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.
The Prime Minister will leave to attend the APEC leaders meeting on Wednesday night to discuss boosting co-operation in a region representing almost half of global trade and more than 60 per cent of the global economy.
The Asia-Pacific is the focus of the escalating contest for strategic supremacy between the US and China, with the centrepiece of the summit expected to be the first face-to-face bilateral meeting in a year between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr Jennings said there were opportunities for Mr Albanese to brief Mr Biden on his own meeting with Mr Xi Jinping in Beijing and trumpet the new security pact between Canberra and Tuvalu as evidence Australia was pulling its weight in the Pacific.
He also said Mr Albanese should seize the chance to speak with Mr Biden “about how can we support Israel and get them to start thinking about what is the end game in Gaza”. But Mr Jennings said that “one really doesn’t have a sense that there’s a big agenda for Albanese to prosecute when he’s in San Francisco”.
Mr Albanese has met with both Mr Biden and Mr Xi within the past month after separate visits to both Washington in October and China in early November.
“I think on this occasion he could send the Foreign Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister,” Mr Jennings said. “Typically, I support prime ministers travelling because it’s a key part of their job, but this is an occasion where I’d say domestically his interests are very much to stay at home right now.”
Mr Biden did not attend last year’s leaders’ summit in Bangkok so he could attend his granddaughter’s wedding, with US Vice-President Kamala Harris going instead.
The US wants to use APEC as an opportunity to try to advance talks under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) – a 14-member group, including Australia, that seeks an agreement and common standards across four key areas – trade, supply chains, clean energy and tax. There are 12 partners in common between IPEF and APEC, but no major breakthroughs have been achieved from the discussions in San Francisco.
Asia Society Australia executive director of policy Richard Maude said that “going to the APEC summit is the right call for the Prime Minister, despite a hectic travel program”.
“President Biden will want Mr Albanese there, along with all the Australian help he can get in delivering outcomes under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that give Washington a stronger regional economic agenda and keep Southeast Asia at the IPEF table,” he said. “While APEC struggles to deliver trade results in an era of de-risking and protectionism, the much-anticipated Biden-Xi summit underlines the power of bringing leaders together in regional forums.”
US senior official for APEC Matt Murray said Mr Biden would seek to establish a “strategic vision for regional collaboration in the coming year”.
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