![\"MESSAGE](\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/MESSAGE-FROM-THE-PRIME-MINISTER.png\")
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The Hon. Scott Morrison MP<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Prime Minister<\/span><\/p>\n ***Check against delivery***<\/span><\/p>\n PRIME MINISTER:\u00a0<\/strong>Thank you to Asialink\u00a0and Bloomberg\u00a0for\u00a0the opportunity\u00a0to address\u00a0you here\u00a0today\u00a0prior to my attending the G20 Leaders\u2019 Summit in Osaka\u00a0this weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n Today\u00a0I want to talk about our plan to foster an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific, consistent with our national interests.<\/span><\/p>\n I would like to set out the principles, consistent with our national values, that will guide my Government\u2019s engagement with the Indo-Pacific region.<\/span><\/p>\n The Indo-Pacific is where we live.<\/span><\/p>\n It is where we have our greatest influence and can make the most meaningful impact and contribution.<\/span><\/p>\n It is the region that will continue to shape our prosperity, security and destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n It is the region where, together with our allies, and especially the United States, our people made great sacrifices when our peace was threatened.<\/span><\/p>\n It is the region that has accounted for two-thirds of global growth over the last decade.<\/span><\/p>\n It is home to more than half the world\u2019s population.<\/span><\/p>\n It is the destination for more than three-quarters of our two-way trade.<\/span><\/p>\n It embraces our Pacific family with whom we have special relationships and duties, our close neighbours, our major trading partners, our alliance partners and the world\u2019s fastest growing economies.<\/span><\/p>\n Where else would<\/span> Australia want to be?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n During the early years of European settlement, our geography seemed a burden. Today, I think we now appreciate that it has proved to be a great blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n While comfortably understated in our approach, we do not underestimate our influence, especially if we choose to focus and target our contributions where we can have the greatest impact.<\/span><\/p>\n Our economy has grown faster than any other advanced economy over the last 28 years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Australia is alone among advanced economies in enjoying uninterrupted growth over this period.<\/span><\/p>\n We are one of only ten countries globally with a AAA credit rating from all key agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n We host 10,000 foreign-owned businesses, and $3.7 trillion in foreign investment.<\/span><\/p>\n We rank third as a destination for foreign students, and seventh as a tourist destination.<\/span><\/p>\n We play a critical role in underpinning the resource, energy and food security of East Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n We are the fourth largest pension market. Our funds management sector is the sixth largest in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are a standard bearer for democracy and the rule of law.<\/span><\/p>\n We are a staunch and active ally of the United States, deepening our security cooperation to help secure our region.<\/span><\/p>\n Our post war trading relationship with Japan, marked by our\u00a0\u00a0 Commerce agreement secured in 1957, saw Japan become our largest trading partner until just under over a decade ago. The relationship is now broader and deeper than ever before, This weekend Prime Minister Abe will preside over the G20 as a great friend of Australia and one of the region\u2019s most highly respected statesmen.<\/span><\/p>\n We share a comprehensive strategic partnership and free trade agreement with the People\u2019s Republic of China, with a broad and deep relationship underpinned by people-to-people ties; evidenced by the fact we are home to 1.2 million ethnic Chinese and are host to 1.4 million Chinese visitors and 205,000 Chinese students each year.<\/span><\/p>\n The growth in India\u2019s economic and strategic heft is increasingly felt beyond the Indian Ocean, creating new opportunities for Australia based on our shared values and outlook. India is also now the single largest source of permanent migrants to Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n Our special relationship with ASEAN since its inception has plugged us into a critical network of independent and dynamic\u00a0 developing economies working together to create their own norms and rules for intra-regional growth, critical to the interests of all Indo-Pacific members.<\/span><\/p>\n And we are the single largest development partner with the island nations of the Pacific.<\/span><\/p>\n So together in our region we share a future. We have much to contribute and much to gain.<\/span><\/p>\n The Indo-Pacific is a region which has undergone and is undergoing profound change. We have helped shape that change.<\/span><\/p>\n Post war social development and economic prosperity led initially by Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n Global engagement with the People\u2019s Republic of China and the resultant economic miracle of China\u2019s economic advancement.<\/span><\/p>\n The emergence of ASEAN, which has supported the regional stability that allowed its members to prosper.<\/span><\/p>\n The burgeoning of intra-regional trade. The build-up of regional security capabilities, with inevitable tensions in some areas.<\/span><\/p>\n The economic liberation that has flowed from free trade, new technologies and innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n New environmental pressures and threats to our climate, oceans, species and forests that don\u2019t recognise national boundaries.<\/span><\/p>\n The confluence, agglomeration and dynamism of these forces now shaping our region has brought us to a new threshold.<\/span><\/p>\n Undoubtedly, the most significant change in most recent times has been the shift in the relationship between the United States and China, who exert the greatest influence on our region.<\/span><\/p>\n The world\u2019s most important bilateral relationship \u2013 the US-China relationship – is strained.<\/span><\/p>\n Trade tensions have escalated.<\/span><\/p>\n The collateral damage is spreading.<\/span><\/p>\n The global trading system is under real pressure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Global growth projections are being wound back.<\/span><\/p>\n The impact of any further deterioration of the relationship will not be limited to these two major powers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The balance between strategic engagement and strategic competition in the US-China relationship has shifted.<\/span><\/p>\n This was inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\n China\u2019s conscious decision to pursue prosperity as a strategy for national unity and stability launched one of the world\u2019s greatest economic miracles.<\/span><\/p>\n Now China is a significant power, with vast military, global interests and the biggest economy in the world in terms of purchasing power parity.<\/span><\/p>\n It is important to acknowledge that this success was made possible by the active and strategic engagement of the United States and the wider global community.<\/span><\/p>\n Firstly, through enthusiastic bilateral exchange and then by supporting access to the global rules-based trading system through China\u2019s accession to the WTO in 2001, gave it much better access to the markets of 154 member economies.<\/span><\/p>\n This also required reforms from China that supported its rapid economic expansion.<\/span><\/p>\n China is now the major trading partner of more than 50 countries.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1980, China\u2019s trade with the outside world amounted to less than $40 billion. By 2015, it had increased one hundredfold, to $4 trillion<\/span><\/p>\n China is the largest holder of foreign US currency reserves.<\/span><\/p>\n China\u2019s economic rise has not been a zero sum game. This has been especially true in Australia\u2019s case, but also for the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n This is why Australia has always, and will continue to, welcome China\u2019s economic growth.<\/span><\/p>\n However, the ground has now shifted. It is now evident that the US believes that the rule-based trading system – in its current form – is not capable of dealing with China\u2019s economic structure and policy practices.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of these concerns are legitimate.<\/span><\/p>\n Forced technology transfer is unfair.<\/span><\/p>\n Intellectual property theft cannot be justified.<\/span><\/p>\n Industrial subsidies are promoting over-production.<\/span><\/p>\n China\u2019s rise has now reached a threshold level of economic maturity.<\/span><\/p>\n While we acknowledge that large parts of China are still to realise the prosperity of its major economic centres, it is also true that its most economically successful provinces, some of which are larger than many developed nations, including Australia, has reached and sometimes exceeds the economic sophistication of its global competitors. Yet, at the same time, these economies get to compete with concessions, whether they be on trade, environmental obligations or other terms, not available to other developed economies.<\/span><\/p>\n Our current trading system seems incapable of acknowledging, let alone resolving, these issues.<\/span><\/p>\n The rules-based system is in need of urgent repair if it is to adequately respond to these new challenges, including the rise of large emerging economies, changing patterns of trade and new technologies.<\/span><\/p>\n Our prosperity, and that of our Indo-Pacific partners, depends strongly on the maintenance of an open global economy and a rules-based trading system.<\/span><\/p>\n It will also depend on a positive, productive and cooperative bilateral relationship between China and the US.<\/span><\/p>\n This will require the exercise of special responsibilities by these \u201cGreat Powers\u201d to resist a narrow view of their interests.<\/span><\/p>\n But this won\u2019t be the first time such leadership has been required or demonstrated.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1951\u00a0George Kennan\u00a0wrote, in\u00a0American Diplomacy<\/em>:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf our purposes and undertakings here at home are decent ones, unsullied by arrogance or hostility towards other people or delusions of superiority, then the pursuit of our national interest can never fail to be conducive to a better world.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The statement was made at a time when the United States was in the process of building a new world order, with institutions and\u00a0common\u00a0rules unashamedly seeking to secure prosperity as a bulwark against the madness that saw 60 million people killed and slaughtered, including 45 million\u00a0civilians, during the Second World War.<\/span><\/p>\n According to some, estimates this\u00a0included up to\u00a020\u00a0million\u00a0Chinese as well as 419,000 Americans and almost 40,000 Australians.<\/span><\/p>\n This\u00a0new world order was\u00a0the dividend of\u00a0the\u00a0peace bravely won, none more so than by the United States, whounderstood that with\u00a0its\u00a0great power came great responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n The principles of this new order reflected\u00a0the values\u00a0and aspirations of its architects.<\/span><\/p>\n It was also informed by the failures of pre-war institutions and mindsets\u00a0that saw emerging and recovering economies become frustrated, giving rise to the most evil of nationalist ideologies to take hold.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n As I joined other leaders in Portsmouth recently to commemorate D-Day, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the history of the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n Sitting beside Chancellor Merkel, I was inspired by just how far we had come. No different to when I joined Prime Minister Abe in Darwin to commemorate the bombing of our northern capital. The post-war world order has achieved something truly extraordinary. The United\u00a0States deserves great credit for this achievement.<\/span><\/p>\n Central to these institutions has been a respect for the individual sovereign state, no matter how large or small, and the ambition that each may be able to engage and participate with the security afforded by a common set of rules that means they can get a fair go, free of coercion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Like any nation the US is not perfect, but it has form in being able to look beyond its own horizon to see a bigger picture.<\/span><\/p>\n The United States has demonstrated an understanding that the responsibilities of great power are exercised in their restraint, freely subjecting itself to higher order rules, their accommodation of other interests and their benevolence.<\/span><\/p>\n Such power supports the independence and sovereignty of other nation states and affords protection beyond its own interests, in the knowledge that this is necessary to maintain the peace and stability that ultimately underpins their own prosperity.<\/span><\/p>\n The level of global interconnectedness means this has never been more true than today.<\/span><\/p>\n As a rising global power, China also now has additional responsibilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is therefore important that US-China trade tensions are resolved in the broader context of their special power responsibilities, in a way that is WTO-consistent and does not undermine the interests of other parties, including Australia.<\/span><\/p>\n The accumulation of issues that have led to these tensions must be acknowledged, addressed and resolved at the negotiating table in a way that reinforces our open and inclusive global trading system.<\/span><\/p>\n Like all of us, China and the US have a strong interest, and a special responsibility, to modernise and support the system that has delivered unprecedented growth in national wealth and living standards over the last two decades.<\/span><\/p>\n We can support these efforts and outcomes by rejecting the fatalism of increased polarisation and resisting the analysis that only sees these issues through a binary prism.<\/span><\/p>\n It is in no-one\u2019s interest in the Indo-Pacific to see an inevitably more competitive US-China relationship become adversarial in character.<\/span><\/p>\n All nations in our region, not just Australia, are having to adjust to this period of great power competition.<\/span><\/p>\n Japan, India, New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea. All of us are similarly seeking to balance our interests, our history, our geography, our alliances, our partnerships and aspirations in the context of this new dynamic.<\/span><\/p>\n Like others who live here, Australia simply seeks the freedom to be ourselves, peacefully pursue our national interests, consistent with our values, appreciating our history and being transparent and honest about our aspirations for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n These shared challenges create important common ground, which is where I see Australia continuing to play an important role.<\/span><\/p>\n So we won\u2019t be fazed, intimidated or fatalistic.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course the international environment is difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n Of course there are risks of further deterioration in key relationships and consequent collateral impacts on the global economy and regional stability.<\/span><\/p>\n There are also pressures to decouple the Chinese and American economic systems, whether this be in technology, payments systems, financial services or other areas.<\/span><\/p>\n But these are not insurmountable obstacles. To think they are not does not amount to some modern form of appeasement. This is a straw man argument.<\/span><\/p>\n And what\u2019s the alternative?<\/span><\/p>\n These risks not only can but must be mitigated, and this comes more possible when we work together.<\/span><\/p>\n We should not just sit back and passively await our fate in the wake of a major power contest.<\/span><\/p>\n This underestimates and gives up on the power of human, state and multilateral agency.<\/span><\/p>\n There are practical steps that we can pursue.<\/span><\/p>\n So we will play our part. We will not be passive bystanders.<\/span><\/p>\n Our approach will be based on key principles.<\/span><\/p>\n A commitment to open markets with trade relationships based on rules, not coercion.<\/span><\/p>\n An approach which builds resilience and sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n Respect for international law and the resolution of disputes peacefully, without the threat or use of coercive power.<\/span><\/p>\n And a commitment to cooperation and burden-sharing within strong and resilient regional architecture.<\/span><\/p>\n None of those principles is inconsistent with the natural instinct of sovereign nations to compete.<\/span><\/p>\n And It is not inevitable that competition leads to conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n We have already demonstrated that like-minded nations can take measures to help shape their own destiny.<\/span><\/p>\n We will continue to lead by example, developing our close web of relationships across and within the Indo-Pacific.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Scott](\"https:\/\/websitedesigns.com.au\/elankanew\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/01_Scott-Morrison_C-High-Res-for-Print.jpg\")
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\u201cWHERE WE LIVE\u201d – ASIALINK BLOOMBERG ADDRESS<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE 2019<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n