The Fourth ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue

Foreign policy experts and strategic thinkers met in Kuala Lumpur in December 2011 for the fourth ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand (AANZ) Dialogue. The University of Waikato's Dr Mark Rolls summarises the main themes of the talks.

Coming so soon after the Sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bali, and in the wake of recent political developments in Myanmar, the Fourth ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 4-6 December 2011 occurred at a particularly opportune time.  Indeed, these were two of the themes for the seven sessions. 

Other sessions covered maritime security; the post-Fukushima future of nuclear energy security in East Asia; and Australia and New Zealand updates. For the first time, there was an open discussion session at the end which provided participants with the opportunity to discuss topics that hadn’t been raised previously. One of these proved to be the role of India in the region.

There was no doubt that the sixth EAS was attributed with some significance, being described by one participant as “a turning point”.  Its significance was due not only to the presence for the first time of Russia and the United States, but also to the nature of the discussions.  It was noted that the EAS now provides a forum to discuss strategic issues and, accordingly, that the raising of the issues of maritime security and the South China Sea had seen candid discussions.

Regarding Myanmar, political changes there were described as “fragile”, but the consensus in response to the question of whether the glass was half full or half empty was that it was the former. 

Importantly, given the significance attached to the visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it was acknowledged that Australia and New Zealand had announced an improvement in relations with Myanmar before the US had.  Throughout the dialogue, in fact, Australia and New Zealand’s roles in the region were regarded in a positive light.

The dialogue, as organisers had planned, had fewer participants than in previous years, but this did not diminish the quality of the discussions. The dialogue certainly benefited from greater participation at the official level, including the Australian and New Zealand High Commissioners to Malaysia; the New Zealand ambassador to ASEAN and Indonesia; and a representative of the ASEAN Secretariat.

Image: Some of the participants at the Fourth ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Dialogue.