Neglecting Asean weakens Australia's power to deal with China, analysts warn

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/neglecting-asean-weakens-australia-power-china

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Australia will regret its failure to build a strong relationship with the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) as China's influence in the region grows, analysts say.

The warning came during a conference in Bangkok, Thailand, to mark the 40th anniversary of Asean-Australia ties.

In 1974, Australia and Asean founding members Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia signed an agreement establishing a dialogue partnership.

But John Blaxland, a senior fellow at the strategic and defence studies centre at the Australian National University, said Australia had since failed to develop its strategic relationship with Asean.

"Why aren't we at the stage where we have a bilateral 'Asean plus one' [summit] with Australia?" Blaxland said.

"A lot of people don't appreciate the utility and significance of Aean as an institution, so they are not investing in Asean [as a group]; they're investing bilaterally instead.

"Australia needs to work much more closely with Asean than in the past."

Asean now has 10 members, with the inclusion of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Burma and Vietnam in recent decades.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, a member of Chulalongkorn University's institute of security and international studies, says the Asean-Australia relationship will play a central role in dealings with China.

"In the future, Asean cooperation with Australia in the overall security issue and with major powers in the case of China will be much [more] crucial," Kavi said.

"Cooperation between Asean and Australia amid the rise of China will be one of the new areas."

He partly blamed the media for Australia's "lack of understanding" of Asean.

"I think Australia pays lip service because most of the time in east Asia summits, Australia is not on the Asean side – it's on the major powers' side."

Gwen Robinson, also a member of the Chulalongkorn University institute, criticised "the snail's pace growth in trade between Australia and Asean in contrast with north-east Asia, despite Asean collectively being Australia's third- or fourth-largest trading partner".

But Robinson said the Asean economic community, scheduled to begin next year, would offer Australia a "perfect opportunity to seize on this as a new era and as a way to build on past goodwill".