2009 ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue - Report of Proceedings

8-9

December 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Vigorous ASEAN follow-up to the Prime Minister's Asia-Pacific community conference
By Asialink Professorial Fellow Anthony Milner

The second ASEAN-ISIS/Australia/New Zealand Track II Dialogue was held in Kuala Lumpur on 8-9 December 2009.

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Left:YBhg. Tan Sri Mohamed Jawhar Hassan, Chairman and CEO, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Professor Tony Milner, Professorial Fellow and Asialink International Director, and Mr Sid Myer, Chairman of Asialink at the opening dinner.

Right:Ms Jenny McGregor, CEO of Asialink and Professor Dr Carolina G. Hernandez, Founding Director and Chair, Board of Directors Institute for Strategic and Development Studies during the dialogue.

The Australian delegation was led byAsialink, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Lowy Institute and the Australian National University, and there were also representatives from DFAT, AusAID and the Office of National Assessments. The New Zealand team was led by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. TheASEAN-ISISorganisation has been influential in the development of ASEAN and broaderEast Asian regionalism.

Establishing an annual Australia/New Zealand meeting with this organisation is a significant new step indeepening Australian engagementwith the Asian policy-influencing elite that is currently seeking to reshape the region in the context of a new balance of global power. Unlike most AustralianTrack IIactivity, thisDialogueis in an 'East Asian' not an 'Asia Pacific' setting, and does not have United States participation. A number of the ASEAN participants at this meeting had also been at Prime Minister Rudd's Sydney conference several days before, from 3-5 December.

The first session of the Dialogue brought home the real strengths of the ASEAN,Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreement(AANZFTA), which was signed in February of this year. The comprehensiveness of the Agreement, its particular approach to rules of origin and its stress on cooperation (including in the building of production networks) are good news - but Dialogue discussion did underline the need for governments to communicate effectively the potential opportunities to the private sector. The relevance of such agreements to practical business people should be spelt out very carefully.

The second session, dealing with regional 'architecture', was at times not just lively but passionate - and we recalled that we had promised at our initial Dialogue in December 2008 to be frank and open in our discussions! A number of ASEAN representatives expressed strong opposition to the creation of new regional institutions - includingPrime Minister’s Rudd’s Asia Pacific community concept.

In this session, our senior Australian DFAT official made clear that - at least at government level - Australian thinking about regional institutions is a work in progress. We are open to regional views, and the Australian officials at this Dialogue were certainly listening. One observation made was that the messy architecture of the region is not to be blamed merely on poor institutional architects. It is a reflection of deep, unresolved issues - one of which (referred to in the session) is the China-Japan dynamic.

We need to address, therefore, not just the problem of messy architecture, but the fact that we live in a complex, currently transforming, messy region. As one participant put it, we do not at this stage even have agreement over how to define the 'region'. Where we did have agreement at the Dialogue, however, was in the view that it is necessary to consider ways in which regional cooperation, of one type or another, can be strengthened.

In the third humanitarian-crises session, hearing of the 198 NGOs involved in the Padang crisis, and the way different aid agencies (both government and private) seem not to communicate easily, we thought again - in a very concrete manner - about the potential advantages of having effective, responsive regional institutions. Some real headway appears to have been made in formulating regional agreements and strategies, but we heard a good deal about the problems of putting these strategies into operation. One observation that came through clearly from the presentations and discussion concerns the advantages that can be gained when Australian, New Zealand or other international aid operations are able to forge alliances within the region itself. The medical aid organisation, Mercy Malaysia, is one obvious local partner.

In the final 'security cooperation' session we again discussed practical regional cooperation - in such areas as transnational crime, people smuggling and counter-terrorism.  With respect to more traditional security concerns, Australia is especially active in bilateral or smaller multi-lateral arrangements. Apart from the United States alliance, there are the 'Five Power Defence Arrangements' (involving Malaysia and Singapore as well as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand), the long-term cooperation with Japan and developing relations with India, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

In many cases a real depth of cooperation is being achieved, with joint military exercises, cooperative military training and intelligence sharing - but much of this engagement is overlooked in public discussion in Australia, which tends to be preoccupied with China. In discussion at this Dialogue, one concrete issue raised was the possibility that the Five Power Defence Arrangements - in operation now for almost four decades - might be adapted in some way to relate more broadly to security concerns across Southeast Asia.

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Image captions:

1- Ms. Mariam Md. Salleh,  Director, ASEAN Economic Cooperation, Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Prof Simon Tay, Chairman, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Dayangku Dr Hajah Norulazidah binti Pg Hj Omar Alli, Lecturer in Economics / Programme Leader for Economics, Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam, Dr Kitti Prasirtsuk, Associate Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University, Mr Brian Lynch, Director, New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, and Professor Ann Capling, Professor of Political Science, University of Melbourne at the opening plenary session

2- HRH Prince Samdech Norodom Sirivudh, Supreme Privy Counselor to His Majesty the King of Cambodia, Founder and Chairman, Board of Directors of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, Hugh Borrowman, First Assistant Secretary, South East Asia Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Professor Tony Milner, Professorial Fellow and Asialink International Director at the opening dinner

3- Dr Richard Grant, Executive Director, Asia:NZ, Dr Tang Siew Mun, Director, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, Executive Chairman, Institute of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy, Mr Alan March, Co-Director, Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction, Prof Herman Kraft
Executive Director, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies

4- Asialink Professorial Fellow Anthony Milner

5- Mr Sid Myer, Chairman of Asialink and Dr Carolina G. Hernandez, Founding Director and Chair, Board of Directors, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies at the opening dinner

6- Sid Myer, Chairman of Asialink, Dr Stephen Leong, Director Centre for International Studies, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, and David Kersey, NZ High Commissioner in KL

7- Professor Ann Capling, Professor of Political Science, University of Melbourne and Dayangku Dr Hajah Norulazidah binti Pg Hj Omar Alli, Lecturer in Economics / Programme Leader for Economics, Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam

8- HE Penny Williams, Australia’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Mr Sid Myer, Chairman of Asialink and Prof Simon Tay, Chairman, Singapore Institute of International Affairs at the opening dinner

9- Professor Ann Capling, Professor of Political Science, University of Melbourne and YBhg. Dato’ Dr Mahani Zainal Abidin
Director-General, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia deep in conversation (background). Dr Raymond Atje, Head of Department of Economics, Centre for Strategic and International Studies and Mrs. Malayvieng Sakonhninhom, Director-General, Institute of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs talking over dinner (foreground).

10- Farida Fleming, Director of Applied Research and Analysis, Asialink, Mr. Kwa Chong Guan, Head of External Relations, Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University and Ms Rebecca Needham High Commission of New Zealand at the opening dinner

11- Mr Sid Myer, Chairman of Asialink, Dr Stephen Leong, Director, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and HE Mr Bradley Burgess, High Commission of New Zealand

12- HE Penny Williams, Australia’s Ambassador to Malaysia, Mr. G. Rajayah, Deputy Under-Secretary (Policy Division), Ministry of Defence, Malaysia, and HRH Prince Samdech Norodom Sirivudh, Supreme Privy Counselor to His Majesty the King of Cambodia, Founder and Chairman, Board of Directors of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace at the opening plenary session

13- Dr Ahmad Faizal Perdaus, President, Malaysian Medical Relief Society (MERCY) Malaysia, Hugh Borrowman, First Assistant Secretary, South East Asia Division, Department of Foreign Affairs and Pg. Muhd Husaini PPL BIDDI, Pg. Hj. Alauddin, Brunei Darussalam Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Brunei

14- Dr Richard Grant, Executive Director, Asia:NZ making a point at the plenary session