The foreign minister has spoken of the impact Australia can wield when using “all the tools” of its national power — including diplomacy and military deterrence — to avert conflict and build prosperity in an increasingly competitive geopolitical climate.
Penny Wong told some of the country’s top mandarins, diplomats and national security experts on Tuesday that she wanted to level up Australia’s approach to statecraft.
“Diplomacy builds coalitions, reduces tensions, negotiates agreements and resolves disputes,” Wong said.
“Diplomacy frames the calculus that each country faces. Diplomacy signals intent, credibility, and even red lines.”
Popular academic discourse often made the artificial distinction between diplomatic actions as either reassuring or deterring. This was a limiting view, Wong said.
“The implication [of these conversations is] that the role of diplomacy is exclusively soft persuasion, and that the hard edge of the military is our only deterrent.
“But that thinking limits our potency. We have to maximise all the tools of national power,” Wong said.
“As recognised in the defence strategic review, credible deterrence requires using all levers of statecraft to create an unacceptably high cost for any potential adversary.”
Development and growth through peace was part of the logic of the post-war economic order, Wong added. This required forums such as the UN, where nations could come together, decide the rules and defend the peace.
“Regional economies share the benefits of prosperity. Economic interdependence can, as we know, also be misused for strategic and political levels,” Wong said.
“This is one way in which rules play an important role in deterrence — in this case international trade laws, which also create a level playing field.
“You see, this is why multilateral engagement matters. It’s why multilateral engagement in international organisations like the United Nations is a core national interest, too often dismissed by some.”
Wong explained that a new concept of national defence, which underpinned Australia’s inaugural national defence strategy, understood the versatility and efficacy of diplomacy.
“As we seek to maintain peace in our region, our front nations’ frontline is diplomacy. And our diplomacy is underwritten by our military capability,” Wong said.
“Here at home, our domestic resilience, our economic strength, and our multicultural democracy — they also raise the costs for those who would seek to coerce us.
“In all of these cases, the levers to deter and reassure are mutually reinforcing. Without credible military capability, the efficacy of diplomacy and economic integration, are invariability diminished,” she said.
The foreign minister’s remarks were part of a keynote speech made to ANU’s ‘Securing Our Future’ conference on Tuesday.
Wong argued that the risk of expending military resources to respond to conflict would increase if proper investment in diplomacy and engagement were lacking. She also spoke about how she believed militaries played an important deterrence role in the pursuit of peace.
“As international trends continue in the wrong direction, Australia’s coordination of our military, diplomatic, strategic and economic power, our ability to reassure partners and to deter threats, becomes ever more important,” Wong said.
With this dynamic came an increasing need for transparency and meeting the highest standards concerning nuclear non-proliferation, the foreign minister noted.
“As military capabilities grow, we know that a level of transparency is expected from our region, and our partners — just as we expect transparency of others,” Wong said.
“Australia knows that international rules and norms can deter conflict and underpin our security and prosperity.
“Our efforts provide reassurance to persuade all countries that their interests are best served by peace and deterrence, [and] to ensure that the costs of aggression will continue to outweigh the benefits,” she said.
In the two years since taking office, Wong said, the Albanese government had risen to meet the challenges facing Australia’s region with cooperation and ambition front of mind.
Australia wanted to see a region that was not homogenous but balanced, and where nations large and small were free to determine their own futures, the foreign minister said.
“We operate by the same rules and we have space to agree to disagree,” Wong said.
Wong identified the US as Australia’s principal strategic partner who shared common values and whose security guarantee to the region had delivered long periods of stability and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific.
The US’ ability to forge connections and inspire partnerships would be a feature of the future, as it has been in decades past, she said.
“American leadership remains indispensable. It is the great builder of alliances and networks essential for balancing a multipolar region,” Wong said.
“We will continue to work closely with it.”
US ambassador Caroline Kennedy was in the audience to hear the Australian foreign minister’s speech.
Under Labor’s foreign policy, Wong said, Australia would continue to invest in the region and its collective resilience. This involved fostering peace and advancing mutual trust to achieve prosperity across Southeast Asia.
Australia had also released its first international development policy in more than a decade and was focused on rebuilding its development capability.
From Australia’s Southeast Asia’s economic strategy to the Quad partnership with India, Japan and the US, Wong said careful attention was being paid to listen and respond to regional partners.
“Through these and other investments, we are working to help our partners [develop] critical infrastructure and provide their own securities.
“We recognise we live in a more contested region and that we have to work harder to be a trusted partner. The opportunity to be the only partner was lost to us,” Wong said.
Repairing Australia’s working relationship with China’s leadership in Beijing had also gained momentum, Wong said, reflecting Australia’s credibility as a regional partner.
As a great power, the foreign minister predicted China would continue to assert itself in shaping the region and the world.
“Advancing our interests requires engagement. And contrary to what some will suggest, engagement does not imply concession,” Wong said, noting the peaceful resolution of matters cornering China was preferable to the alternative.
“We welcome the resumption of … dialogue between the United States and China as important steps on the path towards stability.”
The strife in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, and the devastating impact on innocent Palestinian civilians comprised a significant part of her address, with the foreign minister appealing to Australian supporters on either side to acknowledge one another’s common humanity and “come together”.
Wong said she was increasingly concerned about blatant anti-semitism and islamophobia in Australia, and that respectful conversations about the Gaza conflict were becoming a growing struggle.
“This imperils our democracy. We have to keep listening to each other. We have to keep respecting each other,” Wong said.
“We gain nothing by talking past each other. We get nothing by shouting each other down.
“We are a pluralist country, welcoming different races, religions and views. And what unites us is respect for one another.”
The foreign minister added that the actions of the Greens to amplify disinformation about the Gaza conflict, and lack of compassion from Peter Dutton had further stoked community tensions.
“This is not a game — there are real consequences”, she warned her fellow parliamentarians, before outlining Labor’s standing position on the conflict and indicating the government was considering recognising Palestinian statehood.
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