Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CANBERRA303
2008-03-27 06:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL//NOFORN
Embassy Canberra
Cable title:  

ADVANCING AUSTRALIA'S GLOBAL INTERESTS

Tags:  PREL PGOV ECON ETRD SENV AS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO5755
PP RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHBY #0303/01 0870653
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 270653Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY CANBERRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9287
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST PRIORITY 0285
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1799
RUEHBN/AMCONSUL MELBOURNE PRIORITY 5118
RUEHPT/AMCONSUL PERTH PRIORITY 3401
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY PRIORITY 3307
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0610
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CANBERRA 000303 

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ETRD SENV AS
SUBJECT: ADVANCING AUSTRALIA'S GLOBAL INTERESTS


Classified By: Political Counselor James F. Cole for reasons 1.4 (b) an
d (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CANBERRA 000303

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV ECON ETRD SENV AS
SUBJECT: ADVANCING AUSTRALIA'S GLOBAL INTERESTS


Classified By: Political Counselor James F. Cole for reasons 1.4 (b) an
d (d).


1. (U) SUMMARY: In his first foreign policy address as Prime
Minister, and before leaving for the United States, Europe
and China on March 27, Kevin Rudd said that the challenges
Australia faces in areas like climate change, terrorism and
the development of the Pacific Islands will require it to be
more internationally active in the future. To obtain the
kind of outcomes consistent with Australia's interests, Rudd
said he was committed to the principle of "middle power
diplomacy," which means acting in partnership with allies,
friends, and the United Nations. It also means acting in
partnership with United States, which Rudd declared is an
overwhelming force for good in the world. The Prime Minister
also outlined a range of economic policy considerations that
underpinned his visit and restated the three pillars of the
Rudd Government's foreign policy: a strong partnership with
the U.S., working with the UN, and comprehensive engagement
in Asia. END SUMMARY


2. (U) Rudd delivered this speech, his first major foreign
policy address as Prime Minister, in Sydney on March 26, to a
largely business audience sponsored by the Australian
National University and the East Asia Forum. On March 27,
the Prime Minister leaves for a 17 day trip to the United
States, Brussels, Bucharest for a NATO meeting, and China.
With the uncertainty in global financial markets and the
increasing challenges facing the global economy, Rudd said he
would use the trip to engage critical economic decision
makers and business leaders abroad.

THE NEED TO BE INTERNATIONALLY ACTIVE


3. (U) The policy environment in which Australia now had to
operate, Rudd said, was increasingly interconnected and there
was no longer a clear distinction between "foreign" and
"domestic." If Australia failed to engage with global
economic, security and environmental challenges, it would

also fail to deal with their impact locally. That meant, the
Prime Minister continued, that Australia must increasingly
engage with other nations to respond to the challenges to
those interests abroad. For example, Rudd noted, a failure
to engage with the global community on climate change would
exclude Australia from the chance to shape the global
response in ways consistent with its national interests. In
addition, a failure to act effectively on terrorism in the
wider region would affect Australia's ability to deal with
terrorism domestically. A failure to act on the development
challenges of the South Pacific Island states would result in
more Australian military interventions and a risk of a
large-scale influx of refugees from the region.

MIDDLE POWER DIPLOMACY


4. (U) Rudd stated that the new Australian Government was
committed to the principle of creative middle power diplomacy
as the best means of enhancing Australia's national
interests. For Rudd, middle power diplomacy meant acting as
Qinterests. For Rudd, middle power diplomacy meant acting as
an effective international citizen in enhancing the global
and regional order and "operating in partnership with our
long-standing ally the United States - as the Government
argues that the US continues to be an overwhelming force for
good in the world." It also meant acting in partnership with
Australia's friends in the Asia Pacific region, and in
organizations such as APEC, the ASEAN Regional Forum, the
East Asia Summit and the UN across the range of pan-global
challenges from climate change, the Millennium Development
Goals and the continuing challenge of nuclear weapons
proliferation.

AUSTRALIA A GREATER FORCE FOR GOOD


5. (U) Australia could be a greater force for good in the
world, Rudd maintained. Rudd declared that Australia's voice
had been too quiet for too long across the various councils
of the world and that was why during the course of the next

CANBERRA 00000303 002 OF 003


three years, the world would see an increasingly activist
Australian international policy. The Prime Minister noted
that Australia had begun this process with its ratification
of Kyoto, the active role it played at the Bali Conference,
and with its immediate response to the security crisis in
East Timor. More recently, Rudd stated, Australia's new
response to the acute development challenges facing the
Pacific Island states through the Port Moresby Declaration -
reinforced by its commitment to increase Australia's overseas
development assistance to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015 - would
assist it in fulfilling its obligations towards the
realization of the Millennium Development Goals in its
immediate region.

AUSTRALIA'S GLOBAL AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTERESTS


6. (U) The area which currently underlined the absolute
interconnectedness of Australia's national, regional and
global interests, Rudd explained, was the impact on the
global economy of recent instability in global financial
markets. This economic uncertainty underlined the decision
early in the Government's term to visit the United States,
Europe and China - all critical to the shape of the global
economy for the critical year ahead. Rudd said he would
communicate to the economic and business leadership of the
US, the UK and China the continuing fundamental strength of
the Australian economy in the face of international
turbulence.

ENGAGING GLOBAL AND REGIONAL PARTNERS ON TRADE


7. (U) The Prime Minister maintained that the economic
challenges Australia faced, and the need for cooperative
action in response, highlighted the importance of greater
openness in global markets - rather than retreating towards
protectionism in the face of global economic uncertainty.


8. (U) US leadership was crucial to getting a good outcome on
the Doha Round of trade negotiations, Rudd said. An outcome
that delivered immediate market access gains would give a
much-needed confidence boost to business with a signal that
the governments of the world were committed to ongoing trade
liberalization. It would also require European cooperation,
which was why the Prime Minister said he would be raising
these matters in Brussels as well as Washington.


9. (U) Australia's own trading interests were closest with
the Asia-Pacific region, Rudd continued. Over 70 per cent of
its trade was with the member economies of APEC. Its top
three merchandise export markets were Japan, China and the
Republic of Korea. India was its fastest growing major
export market. Two-way trade with Indonesia, Malaysia and
Singapore was worth over AUD $40 billion. Japan remained
Australia's largest export market. Which was why Australia
placed great priority on the negotiation of a free trade
agreement with Japan.


10. (U) Australia's trade with China had already been the
subject of many economic headlines, Rudd said. Last year it
became Australia's largest merchandise trading partner, and
Qbecame Australia's largest merchandise trading partner, and
over the last decade the value of Australia's merchandise
exports to China had grown by 20 per cent per year. In
Beijing, Rudd said he would discuss Australia's free trade
agreement negotiations with China. Progress to date had been
slow, the Prime Minister admitted, but he would be urging his
Chinese counterparts to join with him in collectively
redoubling their efforts on the negotiations to get a high
quality outcome.

COMMENT: RUDD'S MESSAGE: A FRIEND TO THE U.S. AND A REALIST
ON CHINA


11. (C/NF) Nothing Rudd said in this speech was new, but it
explains the rationale for the trip and what his concept of
what Australia's international role should be. New prime
ministers generally concentrate on domestic issues first.
Former Prime Minister John Howard did not go overseas for the

CANBERRA 00000303 003 OF 003


first six months of his first term so Rudd went to great
lengths to explain the domestic policy rationale for this
round-the-world trip. Encouragingly, he went out of his way
to emphasize the importance of the relationship with the
United States, and the fact that he believes it to be a force
for good in the world. Separately, Post met the previous
day with a former personal advisor to Rudd who is currently
chief of staff for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. She noted
that Rudd hated the erroneous assumption on the part of some
U.S. foreign policy pundits that Rudd, because of his
familiarity with China, would bring Australia closer to China
at the expense of its relations with the United States. This
was simply not true, the former advisor said, and she pointed
to Rudd's April 2007 speech to the Brookings Institute as an
indication of the realism of his views toward China. On the
other hand, the lack of mention of Japan as a security
partner - and Rudd's decision to bypass Tokyo on his first
major foreign trip - has received noticeable attention, and
will play into the hands of critics who argue that Rudd's
claims of being a "China realist" are more than offset by a
lack of attention to Japan.

CLUNE