TRANSCRIPT
Leaders from nine Southeast Asian countries travelled to Melbourne this week, for an ASEAN summit.
Although Australia isn't part of the association, it has a standing relationship with the group, with the special summit this year marking 50 years since Australia became ASEAN's first dialogue partner.
Director of La Trobe Asia Professor Bec Strating says it's a strong institution.
"It is a very robust institution. It's durable in the sense that it has been around for a long time. There are lots of associated institutions around ASEAN that are really important mechanisms or forums for states, both within Southeast Asia but also beyond Southeast Asia such as Australia, to connect with other states to engage to try to solve problems and to resolve conflicts or issues that might emerge."
Hosting the summit gives Prime Minister Anthony Albanese the chance to take the lead in the region.
Since coming into power, the government has focused on its relationships in South East Asia, and has now signed a strategic partnership with all ASEAN members except Myanmar.
Mr Albanese says he is focused on creating a stable Indo-Pacific region.
"We believe in an Indo Pacific region that is open, stable and prosperous and where sovereignty is respected and differences are settled through dialogue and agreed rules and norms."
The headline announcement from this year's summit is a $2 billion investment fund, focusing on the clean energy transition.
Head of the Climate and Security Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Dr Robert Glasser, says it will help Australia engage in the region.
"The $2 billion is really funding to support Australian industry to engage in ASEAN countries predominantly to focus on the Clean Energy Transition, to support that. I think that's a good thing. Australia is under-investing in this hugely important rapidly growing region on our doorstep. We should be engaging much more directly in (it) but there are a number of challenges and risks and this financing (is) the government paying for those risks, to enable those investments to happen."
CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Bran Black, says the announcement is a step towards real economic engagement in the region.
"So it's not talking about simply lofty ideals, it's providing tangible actions, discrete opportunities for engagement. That's so useful. It's so important to focus on what's practical. Somebody once said to me that vision without delivery is just a hallucination. I think that what we're seeing with this strategy is an opportunity to turn a vision into something very real."
Global conflicts dominated talks and announcements throughout the summit but there are still areas where ASEAN failed to find a consensus.
Professor Bec Strating says China is one of those issues.
"ASEAN is a very consensus-oriented institution, so it tries to make decisions based on consensus. But there are areas where it has been difficult to reach that kind of consensus because the countries within ASEAN don't necessarily hold the same approach to China."
Those varying attitudes were clear between ASEAN leaders.
President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Junior, warned against what he called "black and white thinking" when it comes to the superpower.
"The Philippines understands that widening geopolitical polarities around the world and the sharpening strategic competition between China and US have become a reality permeating the regional strategic environment, but we caution against overemphasising this reality."
Malaysia's Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, says just because some countries have issues with China, it doesn't mean Malaysia must too.
"They should not preclude us from being friendly to one of our important neighbours, namely China. That was the context. And if they have problems with China, they should not impose it upon us. We do not have a problem with China."
Professor Strating says the South China Sea remains a significant issue for Australia, and for many ASEAN nations.
"Certainly there are concerns around things like 'gray zone' assertions in particularly in the South China Sea. So that's been one significant issue, is how Australia and Southeast Asia can cooperate on maritime security issues, but it's not just about security. It's about the economy, the *blue economy. It's about dealing with environmental challenges."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong used the summit to announce additional funding for maritime partnerships in the region, recognising the emerging challenges in the area.
"Destabilising, provocative and coercive actions including unsafe conduct at sea and in the air, and militarisation of disputed features. We know that military power is expanding but measures to constrain military conflict are not. And there are a few concrete mechanisms for averting it."
The only ASEAN leader not in attendance was Myanmar's military chief, Min Aung Hlaing.
Traditionally, ASEAN has refused to meddle in domestic politics but Professor Strating says that may have to change.
"Traditionally, ASEAN has preferred an approach of non-interference in domestic political affairs. But that starts to become a bit of a problem if member states are sort of flagrantly violating international law or humanitarian law."
Independent MP Zoe Daniel says ASEAN needs to do more to address the crisis in Myanmar.
"The subtle pressure, the efforts to coddle the junta into stopping bombing its own civilians, have not worked. And really, I do think that the Australian Government needs to be exerting a lot more pressure on ASEAN to actually recognise what's going on and to pressure the junta to fall into line."
The outcome of the summit is contained in a joint statement, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia has signed.
"We have today adopted the ASEAN Australia Joint Leaders Vision statement and the Melbourne Declaration reaffirming our commitment to securing peace stability, prosperity, and a sustainable future for the region."
Dr Robert Glasser, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says the summit will help Australia cement its place in the region.
"I know our government would like Australia to become an energy superpower, a clean energy superpower. And that language, the resilience language, is now achieving kind of equal billing with the China and the regional security threat. And of course, climate impacts will greatly magnify the risks related to more narrow security with China as well."
