New Zealand’s place in Asia
Asia:NZ Executive Director Dr Richard Grant takes stock of the changing geo-political climate and discusses why New Zealand's relationship with Asia is becoming the determinant of this country's long-term security and economic growth.
There is a lot of debate in the countries of the wider Asia-Pacific region about the way in which these countries should address the range of major international issues of the day, and of the future: the issues range from the long-term debate about climate change and access to resources like energy and water to shorter-term issues like addressing humanitarian disasters and piracy. The debate covers not only the policy options, but also the form and membership of international or regional institutions in which governments can meet and reach common decisions.
The debate takes place against a background of changing geo-political circumstances in the region, and particularly in Asia itself. The emergence of China on the global stage is one of the defining events of our lifetime, and the rise of India is equally significant. The global financial crisis and its consequences have made the debate more focussed and more intense. There is not a country in the region which has emerged from the turmoil of the last 18 months without deep scars. Even in the case of those countries like China and India, both economic giants, where growth in GDP has been less affected, the slowdown in their economic activity has been a cause of major domestic economic suffering.
Discussion of, and initiatives around, getting more from inter-governmental relations in Asia are constant. ASEAN continues to extend its relationships with key players, whether through the ASEAN dialogue process, through its free trade negotiating agenda, and, more recently, through its discussions about the role the ASEAN Defence ministers' meeting might have with players outside the ASEAN area. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation involving China, Russia, and some states of central Asia, is another example of a recent institution seeking to develop broader intergovernmental cooperation.
Equally, in North-East Asia, the first summit between Korea, China, and Japan, last December (the first summit held independently of the ASEAN plus 3 meeting,) will be followed up by a further meeting to be held in China this year. The joint statement of the December 2008 meeting said: “We have achieved common recognition that the tripartite cooperation will be guided under the principle of openness, transparency, mutual trust, common interest and respect for our diverse cultures, and that it will contribute to advancing wider regional cooperation frameworks such as ASEAN + 3, EAS, ARF, and APEC in a complementary and mutually reinforcing manner.”
The Six Party negotiations on the Korean peninsula have attracted attention from other countries which wish to be involved in discussions on security in Northeast Asia, and there has been talk of creating some mechanism to allow this to happen.
The role of the United States, both in its bilateral dealings with countries like China, Japan, and India, is central to how this debate on form and institution will develop. The Obama administration is contemplating how it interacts with ASEAN, as with other countries in Asia. The visit by Secretary Clinton in February 2009 to Jakarta brought a promise to launch an inter-agency process in Washington to consider US accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC). More recently, Secretary Gates announced in his speech at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore on 30 May that the US was”beginning to negotiate accession” to the TAC, a significant step forward. With the President due to travel to Singapore for APEC in late October, and then go on to Indonesia, the interest in any change in US policy is very high both within ASEAN and amongst other countries in the wider region, particularly as accession to the TAC would mean the US would meet the three requirements for membership of the East Asia Summit (EAS). (2)
The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is pursuing the initiative which he launched in 2008 about the possibility of establishing an Asia Pacific Community. Returning to this topic in his speech at the Shangri-La dialogue in May 2009, Rudd said that Australia would convene a Track 1.5 conference in Australia either at the end of this year or early in 2010, to allow greater discussion on the issue amongst the 21 countries whose views he had already sought. Rudd said: “We will invite key government officials, academics and opinion makers from around the region to come together and discuss the future of our regional architecture for the 21st century. For us, this is the next step in am unfolding regional conversation.” (3)
The East Asia Summit will meet in Thailand in October, after attempts to convene the 2008 summit in the first part of this year collapsed in the light of domestic political uncertainty in that country. At that meeting there will be discussion not just of the major issues of the day, but also of the evolving regional architecture. It is likely that the group will hear a report of the results of the G20 meeting in London, at which six members of the EAS were present (Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea).
The APEC summit will be held this year in Singapore, and questions over membership of APEC continue to be a consideration for many governments in the region.
For New Zealand, the ongoing debate about regional structures and institutions has immense importance. This country has long recognised that Asia is the region of the globe which is to be the determinant of our long-term security and long-term economic growth. Successive generations of New Zealanders, both in government and in their personal lives, have made decisions about involvement with Asia which have edged us gradually to seeing the Asian region as our natural area of interest. In security terms, that has been the case for over 70 years since the Second World War taught us that our national security could be threatened only in the context of turmoil in Asia. In economic terms, it has been slower in coming, but over the last 15 years or so, successive governments have determined that economic growth for New Zealand relied heavily on our ability to participate in the economic and financial flows that cover the region.
Building on a long history of involvement with countries in Asia, New Zealand has worked hard over the last few years to build up its relationships with a number of countries in Asia, and with ASEAN itself. The relationship with China has come to the centre of the stage. Japan remains one of New Zealand’s closest partners in Asia, and the relationship with Korea has developed tremendously in the last decade or so.
Membership of the EAS from its beginning in 2005 was seen as a promising step forward by the then government. The free trade negotiations with China and with ASEAN in the company of Australia were completed in 2008, following on earlier FTA agreements with Singapore, Brunei, and Thailand. The FTA negotiations with Malaysia have been concluded this year; those with Hong Kong re-launched; and those with India and Korea started. On the economic and trade front, therefore, there is no doubt that New Zealand is committed to the region, and any wider institutionalisation of the economic and trade frameworks.
And, in national terms, New Zealand is now looking to Asia with a different view as the demographic composition of our population changes rapidly, with the number of our citizens whose identification with Asia grows stronger each year. The 2006 census (4) has revealed how quickly that segment of the population with its origins in Asia has grown. Today 11 percent of New Zealanders identify themselves that way. The projection is for 20 percent to do so in 2025. To see how quickly this change has come, we can compare the New Zealand of today with the New Zealand of 1994 when the Asia New Zealand Foundation was set up, and 2.9 percent of New Zealanders identified as Asian. We have today, for instance, a higher proportion than Australia of our citizens who identify themselves as Asian.(5) And, given the estimates of the way in which New Zealand’s population is changing – the New Zealand- born Asian communities are now greater than the Asian migrant portion of those communities, we can see why the projections for greater numbers is made. Auckland City (6) is already 20 percent Asian, and as the largest centre of population in the country, has a major effect on the country’s attitude to the outside world.
The results of the 2008 general elections in New Zealand demonstrate that access to elected government is also something to which Asian communities aspire, and where they are successful. The 2008 elections saw the appointment of the first Chinese Cabinet minister, of the election of the first Korean New Zealander, of the first Sikh New Zealander, and the election of three other members of Parliament of Asian origin. And, since 2006, the Governor-General, the personal representative in New Zealand of the Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II, is also the first Asian New Zealander to hold this position.
This changing demographic is not only changing the way New Zealand looks. It is also a source of great benefit for us as we try to make our way in the Asia of tomorrow, which will be the greatest source of economic growth a and activity in the world for the 21st century.
As New Zealand seeks to do more in Asia, the composition of our population is surely an advantage to us. Not just in ensuring that New Zealanders have a sense of identity with Asia, but also in creating a business community that is able to deal with Asian countries with knowledge of the cultures and languages they are negotiating with; in demonstrating to governments and decision-makers in Asia that New Zealand can bring a multicultural view to its dealings with them; in showing to the peoples of many countries in Asia that New Zealand has been a country of migration for their fellows, and have integrated them into the mainstream of New Zealand society. To maintain this advantage, New Zealanders need to be more aware of Asia and its cultures and peoples, as we commit ourselves to working successfully in the Asian century.
References
- See, for instance, “U.S. Accession to ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation”, dated 5 May 2009, CRS report for Congress
- See Rudd’s speech at the Shangri-la dialogue 29 May 2009, at
- See Bedford and Ho, “Asians in New Zealand: Implications of a changing demography”, Asia:NZ Foundation, June 2008
- Australia’s Asian population is about 8 percent of total population; Canada’s about 11 percent; and the US about 5 percent.
- See Friesen, “Diverse Auckland: the face of New Zealand ion the 21st Century?”, Asia:NZ Foundation, April 2008
