Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has landed in Singapore as he prepares to deliver a major foreign policy speech laying out how Australia will grapple with intensifying competition between the United States and China amid rising military tensions in the region.
Mr Albanese will give the keynote address on Friday night at the Shangri-La Dialogue — the region's peak security forum — in front of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, China's Defence Minister Li Shangfu and a host of senior politicians, officials and military officers.
It's the third time an Australian prime minister has delivered the address, and Mr Albanese is expected to use the prize speaking slot to stress that it's vital to preserve the independence and agency of smaller states – including Australia – in an increasingly uncertain era.
The relationship between Washington and Beijing remains mired in distrust and hostility following the spy balloon saga in February, and on Monday the Pentagon said Mr Li had declined an offer to meet with Mr Austin on the sidelines of the dialogue.
The US also revealed that a Chinese fighter jet last week flew within 120 metres of a US surveillance plane in the South China Sea in an "aggressive" and "dangerous" manoeuvre.
Beijing responded by again accusing the United States of provoking China by conducting aerial and maritime patrols in the region, which Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.
The latest outbreak of tensions will create a stark backdrop for both the Shangri-La Dialogue and Mr Albanese's South-East Asia trip.
Mr Albanese was due to sit down with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for formal talks ahead of his speech, but Mr Lee was forced to pull out of the meeting after testing positive for a "rebound" case of COVID-19.
Singaporean and Australian officials had been planning for the prime ministers to visit a hawker centre in Mr Lee's constituency before the positive diagnosis briefly threw plans into disarray.
Mr Albanese will now instead meet with Mr Lee's designated successor, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, to discuss a host of issues, including the ambitious Green Economy both countries recently signed in an effort to accelerate decarbonisation.
Albanese heads to Vietnam to strengthen ties
On Saturday, Mr Albanese will fly to Vietnam's capital Hanoi for a two-day official visit which will allow Mr Albanese to meet all the nation's core leaders.
Australian officials see Vietnam – which has enjoyed rapid economic growth over the last decade – as an increasingly significant player in South-East Asia, and are keen to expand trade ties with Hanoi.
Vietnam also shares some of Australia's unease about Beijing's growing military power and aggression.
Vietnam's coastguard has had several tense encounters with Chinese vessels inside its Exclusive Economic Zone in the South China Sea.
Vietnam's Ambassador to Australia, Nguyen Tat Thanh, said that Mr Albanese's visit would "lay the foundations for this relationship in the coming decades" and that leaders would sign several agreements over the weekend.
Both countries are still negotiating a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership flagged late last year, but Mr Nguyen said there was scope to rapidly expand migration and economic ties, and is pushing Canberra to allow more Vietnamese temporary workers into Australia.
He told the ABC that Australian businesses had also been too slow to invest in South-East Asia nations like Vietnam.
"Australia has a lot of investment abroad but you do very little in the region," he said.
"The total of what you have invested in ASEAN countries is less than what you have invested in New Zealand alone, for example."
The government has appointed a special envoy to boost Australia's business ties with ASEAN nations, and has vowed to intensify efforts to diversify and expand Australia's export markets across the region.
