Australia Special ASEAN Regional Summit

Although Australia is not a member of ASEAN, the country is hosting a summit of leaders of the nine Association of Southeast Asian Nations members.

Strengthening economic and security ties will be a focus of the Canberra government, which has allocated $186.7 million to help countries in Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific region strengthen maritime security.

Analysts say Australia will also have to negotiate the region’s complicated relationship with China.

Australian Foreign Minister Wong Yin-hyun announced the multi-million dollar funding on Monday. Analysts said the move was a response to China’s growing assertiveness and its disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Australia “is working closely with its Southeast Asian partners to address common maritime challenges and uphold international law,” Huang said in a statement.

Wong later told an ASEAN meeting in Melbourne that the region faced “destabilizing, provocative and coercive actions, including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air” without mentioning China by name.

ASEAN was established in August 1967 and currently has 10 member states including Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Relations with China have been a divisive issue within the alliance. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have close ties with Beijing, while Singapore and the Philippines have tense relations with China.

There have also been frictions between Australia and China over various geopolitical and trade disputes in recent years, although tensions have eased since the election of a left-leaning government in Canberra in May 2022.

Nick Beasley, a professor of international relations at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the Canberra government’s dealings with ASEAN require flexible diplomacy.

“Because not only do we fully support the United States, but because the previous administration accused China in various ways, it certainly complicated our relationship with individual Southeast Asian countries and ASEAN as a whole,” he said.

The Special ASEAN Summit in Melbourne marks the 50th anniversary of Australia becoming the organization’s first dialogue partner. The United States and China have similar partnership arrangements.

Melbourne will host the association’s leaders and officials from Monday to Wednesday.

ASEAN member Myanmar was excluded from the summit due to ongoing conflict at home.

Timor-Leste hopes to become a member of ASEAN and is participating in the meeting in Australia.