Foreign Minister Penny Wong will make a speech at the National Press Club on Monday. (ABC News: Pedro Ribeiro)
The foreign minister will use a National Press Club speech today to declare that the strategic contest in Asia right now is much more than just a battle for supremacy between the US and China, and will determine "nothing less" than how the future world works.
Senator Penny Wong will make the address as tensions continue to ratchet up in the region in the wake of China's latest military exercises near Taiwan, and North Korea's most recent missile tests.
Senator Wong will again say Australia wants to ensure there is a "strategic equilibrium" in Asia where "no country dominates, and no country is dominated".
"We need to understand what is being competed for – that it is more than great power rivalry and is in fact nothing less than a contest over the way our region and our world works," she will say.
And she will warn commentators and strategists who "love a binary" with "simple, clear choices" that they risk losing sight of the bigger picture.
"Viewing the future of the region in terms simply of great powers competing for primacy means countries' own national interests can fall out of focus," Senator Wong will say.
The foreign minister does not name China in the speech excerpts provided ahead of her address, but still makes it clear that Australia wants to help create a strategic balance which constrains Beijing's power, and which makes it harder for it – or any other country — to engage in military aggression or economic coercion.
"It's clear to me from my travels throughout the region that countries don't want to live in a closed, hierarchical region where the rules are dictated by a single major power to suit its own interests," she will say.
"Instead, we want an open and inclusive region, based on agreed rules, where countries of all sizes can choose their own destiny."
The government hopes that if Beijing agrees to rewind the barley tariffs it might do the same for crippling taxes which were also placed on Australian wine exports to China.
The foreign minister does not make any direct references to China's campaign of economic coercion against Australia in the released speech excerpts.
But she will say countries "want a prosperous, connected region, trading together at the epicentre of global economic growth, through a transparent system, where economic interdependence is not misused for political and strategic ends".
AUKUS subs defended
Senator Wong will also use the speech to defend Australia's push to build nuclear powered submarines under the AUKUS plan with the United States and the United Kingdom.
The region's response to the announcement has been ambivalent; a small number of states in the Pacific and Asia have either publicly backed or criticised the plan, but many countries in the region have maintained a watchful silence.
"It is also clear that countries want a region that is peaceful and stable," the foreign minister's speech excerpts say.
"And that means sufficient balance to deter aggression and coercion – balance to which more players, including Australia, must contribute if it is to be durable."
The foreign minister will argue that "strategic reassurance through diplomacy" will also have to be "supported by military deterrence".
"By having strong defence capabilities of our own, and by working with partners investing in their own capabilities, we change the calculus for any potential aggressor," she will say.
"We must ensure that no state will ever conclude that the benefits of conflict outweigh the risks.
"This is fundamental to assuring the safety and security of our nation and our people."
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The foreign minister is asked if she can see a day when governments around the world "may be working in unison particularly in light of global warming, climate change, rising sea levels in the Pacific, rather than just diplomacy".
Penny Wong says "one of the risks of increasing strategic competition is that the focus on the space for cooperation in those areas where cooperation is needed is diminished".
"When I talk about 'cooperate where we can and disagree where we must', I'm doing that deliberately, not just to give the balance, but to say look there are areas we would want to cooperate more closely, and climate is one of them," she says.
"There is no effective response for humanity on climate change unless we are all in. There is no way we can game our way out of it, there is no way we can have a smart diplomatic strategy.
"Fundamentally, if we're actually going to respond to the challenge of climate change for the next generations - bearing in mind we are already mitigating risk point, not an averting point - the only way we do that is if we are all in."
That brings today's National Press Club to a close.
The foreign minister is asked: "Is now the time to step up Australian diplomatic pressure to secure the
release of Julian Assange? What more can the government do to secure his release?"
Penny Wong says his case has "gone on for too long, we think that it should be brought to a close".
"I know that there are some who like to posit 'You do not do this, and you're not doing that', but what I can say to you is we are very clear about our
view on [it].
"There are obviously limits to what you can do in terms of another country's legal proceedings and we are not party those proceedings. We cannot intervene in those proceedings just as the UK and US cannot intervene in our legal proceedings.
"I was pleased that we were able to ensure that there was a
visit, that my Commissioner met with Julian to better understand his welfare. It would be good to continue to be able to provide consular support to him."
The foreign minister is asked about comments that she wants "to draw upon the rich history of Indigenous Australians as a tool when working with Pacific neighbors".
Reporter: What would that look like and how are you developing that policy with Indigenous Australians?
"It gives us a way in which we can engage and connect that we haven't previously utilised. I'm excited by that. This is still something we haven't done before," she says.
"Part of why we have appointed the
ambassador as I described in the speech is do want him to engage with First Nations communities, about what this looks like, where we should start."
Penny Wong is asked about the Port of Darwin lease, when a review into the controversial arrangement is due, and whether terminating the agreement would be consistent with "shaping the region in our interest".
"I think the way I would look at it first is whether or not maintaining that, the current arrangement in relation to the Port that the previous government entered into, was in Australia's national interest," she says.
"Obviously that review was initiated or conducted by the Department of Defence. I don't have a timeline or response to that. I can find out and come back to you.
"More generally I think the question is, is it in our national interest for those lease arrangements to be maintained? That
is the question. The government will need to consider that."
Penny Wong is asked about state premiers visiting China, and what she does as foreign minister before these visits.
She says "engagement is the way in which we can pursue our national interest"
"In terms of the premiers trips... we ensure
that people have been briefed if that has been sought or we reach out proactively and continue to do that," she says.
The foreign minister is asked about US president Joe Biden's comments that US forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Asked if she supported "this new approach as a way to deter China" or if she thinks "it is raising the tensions", Penny Wong says the US "remains of the view that the status quo is the best way forward to maintain the peace".
"I was being very direct and very frank,
but deliberately so when I said someone in my position doesn't just refuse to engage in these hypotheses because they want to avoid the question. I do so because I think this sort of speculation is unhelpful and our task, my job."
Pressed on human rights concerns, Penny Wong is asked: "Sanctions have already been placed on Russian, Iranian, and Myanmar officials. Should Chinese officials be next and is that a prospect the government will consider?"
Referring to an op-ed she wrote a few months ago, Ms Wong says "obviously we don't live
in a world where we can determine other countries' policies".
"What are the effective ways to engage to encourage and articulate or advocate our support of these principles, international
principles.. human rights obligations that states have signed up to?
"I made the point that we will do it in various ways, sanctions are part of the answer, but they are not the only part. I would obviously never speculate on what might or might not be considered."
First up, Penny Wong is asked about her comments around collective action, and how much determination she's seeing "from the region... to band together".
"What I say is we share a region, we share a future, and that peace is best served by all of us exercising our agency," she says.
Reporter: Are other
countries doing it?
"I think you should probably talk to them. But I would observe that all countries of the region are seeking to navigate that world," the foreign minister says.
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