Paul Keating slammed as out of step on Quad, AUKUS

Security experts say Paul Keating is ‘out of touch’ and undermining his foreign policy legacy after the former PM called the Quad security dialogue ‘strategic nonsense’.

Former PM Paul Keating speaking at La Trobe University on Wednesday.

Security experts say Paul Keating is “out of touch” and undermining his foreign policy legacy after the Labor elder statesmen called the Quad security dialogue “strategic nonsense” and lamented the “tragedy” of Australia following through with the AUKUS partnership with Britain and the US.

Defence Minister Richard Marles distanced the government from the comments but stopped short of condemning Mr Keating, whom he said had “every right to articulate those views”.

Mr Keating, whose record in government was a key influence for both Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer Jim Chalmers, said on Wednesday that the US showed “no thanks or gratitude” to Australia for its loyalty.

He added there could be no “operative, peaceful world” under the current G7 structure – a group of the seven most advanced countries in the world which excludes China – and criticised India for not aligning itself with the interests of the West.

In 2016, Mr Keating’s office said he had “no consultancy nor any other role with any commercial interest in China” and had no investments in the country. However, Mr Keating has been a long serving member of the advisory council of the China Development Bank which helps fund infrastructure in Chinese cities and does pay members annual fees and airfares. He has rejected suggestions this has influenced his views on China.

Mr Marles on Thursday said he “always sought” Mr Keating’s views, but disagreed with his ­comments on the Quadrilateral security dialogue between the US, Japan, India and Australia and the relationship between Canberra and Washington which he said were both “more important than ever”.

A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said “the Albanese government’s commitment to the Quad, AUKUS and the India bilateral relationship is well known”. “Senator Wong has had more than half a dozen meetings with her Indian counterpart, including on the very day she was sworn in and as recently as this week when she hosted him in Canberra,” the spokesperson said.

Penny Wong with former prime minister Paul Keating at Parliament House in Canberra in 2013.

Policy director of the national security college at the Australian National University William Stoltz said it was “disappointing” to see Mr Keating trash his legacy and prove he was “well and truly out of step” with not only defence experts but the Labor Party.

“This is yet another pretty unedifying set of remarks from Mr Keating which are fairly uninformed and indicate he hasn’t kept track of what’s happening in the world since he left office,” Dr Stoltz told The Australian.

“This does a disservice to the legacy his government had on foreign policy, particularly on ­Indonesia and opening up Australia to South East Asia.”

US experts such as Centre for a New American Security chief executive Richard Fontaine also hit back at the idea Washington was “ungrateful” to Australia.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he told The Australian. “The appreciation for Australia’s contributions not just today, but for the past decade … people are well aware of that in Washington.”

It comes as the US released its National Security Strategy, which outlines China as the major challenge facing the West. It also references Australia “more than usual”, according to Mr Fontaine.

“The strategy implicitly suggests the Indo-Pacific is the priority for US national security policy … and the alliance is extraordinarily tight and important.”

In contrast, Mr Keating said Beijing was the “stabilising force” in Asia and didn’t seek to “overturn” the global order.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Mr Keating’s comments “significantly undermined” Australia’s national security and could be weaponised by China.

“Unfortunately these remarks will be used by the Chinese Communist Party, they will be weaponised, and are contrary to the approach and the policies that this government should be putting forward,” Ms Ley said.

Beijing mouthpiece the Global Times has quoted Mr Keating in the past when he criticised people such as Liz Truss, before she became British Prime Minister, for her “demented” comments about Chinese military aggression.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said that given Mr Albanese had indicated in the past he regularly sought Mr Keating’s counsel, the former prime minister’s comments were “of great concern”, adding: “These comments are contrary to Australia’s national interest … (and) the government would be wise to swiftly distance themselves from these remarks.”