In its first week in office in 1972, the Whitlam government took a stand against apartheid in banning SA sporting teams from entering Australia.
It took this action because it was the right thing to do. It led, under subsequent prime minister Malcolm Fraser, to Australia enacting and promoting economic sanctions against SA. By the mid-1980s all major economies had done so, strangling the apartheid regime and helping lead to its negotiated demise.
Australia has changed enormously in the 50 years since we first took a stand against apartheid. Today we are a multicultural country; a nation where half our people were born overseas or have a parent born overseas.
Our parliament reflects this diversity. We have First Nations parliamentarians and those of African, Middle Eastern and Asian origin. We have Muslim ministers. We protect human rights and provide a universal social safety net. We have open trade policies that allow us to export our strengths and import the things and capital we need to grow our economy and lift living standards. We are richer and better off for our openness.
Australia is a big country by several measures: our land mass, resource endowments and sporting prowess (strengths we share with SA!) Our population size and economic and military strength make us what is fashionably or unfashionably — depending on the time — known as a “middle power”.
As a liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific, with the countries of Southeast Asia to our north, Pacific islands to our east and Indian Ocean region to our west, Australia is uniquely placed to work with partners like SA to build a world where, as Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has voiced, countries like ours are more than just supporting players in a grand drama of global geopolitics.
SA advocates multipolarity and the need for institutions and practices to reflect the rising power of developing countries. This is, in many ways, the driver of Brics. Australia shares an inclusive vision for the world.
We support, for example, reform of the UN Security Council, with greater representation for Africa, Latin America and Asia. Evolution of the international order creates risks and opportunities and we should be careful not to jettison aspects we have built over decades which benefit us all: human rights, humanitarian law, rules-based trade and freedom of navigation. These things don’t happen by themselves. They require constant care and attention.
Strategic competition is operating on several levels and weighing on the international system. In the Indo-Pacific, this challenge is acute. The Indian-Ocean Rim Association’s (Iora’s) outlook on the Indo-Pacific has put security, prosperity, and an open and transparent rules-based order at the centre of meeting this challenge. This region — Australia’s neighbourhood — is seeing the largest military build-up anywhere in the world since World War 2. We do not oppose any nation’s right to invest in and develop defence capabilities. However, a lack of transparency can fuel insecurity.
The trilateral technology partnership between Australia, the UK and the US (Aukus), including the pathway for Australia to acquire conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines, is one response to the challenges posed by the region’s deteriorating strategic environment. It complements other measures — diplomatic and development — to meet the challenges of our strategic circumstances.
Some have sought to portray this acquisition as fuelling a nuclear arms race. This is completely misplaced. Australia has a proud history of championing practical disarmament efforts, and an impeccable record on nuclear safety and non-proliferation. As a non-nuclear-weapon state under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Australia does not — and will not — seek to acquire nuclear weapons.
Australia seeks to set the highest non-proliferation standard in our acquisition of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines. Australia is working openly and transparently with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — of which both Australia and SA are founding members — to develop a non-proliferation approach that will enable the IAEA to provide assurance to the international community that Australia is continuing to meet its non-proliferation obligations
The core purpose of foreign policy is to expand the international space within which the nation-state can operate, to increase its options and maximise its choices consistent with its values and interests. This guides Australian policy thinking. What we want is a balance of power where no country dominates, and no country is dominated, and countries are free to pursue their own aspirations and prosperity. This requires both reassurance and deterrence. Australia is playing its part.
Since the Berlin Wall fell 34 years ago and the people of Eastern Europe tasted freedom, the Cold War continues to loom large in some foreign policy thinking. On one level, this is not surprising given the horrors it brought to the African continent. But the analogy with the present is misplaced and risks understating the agency of countries in today’s multipolar world, including in multilateral institutions where every country has one voice and one vote.
Australia does not accept that we are bit players in the games of great powers. President Cyril Ramaphosa has underlined SA’s refusal to be drawn into conflicts between global powers. This does not need to mean there is no role for middle powers lacking the heft to unilaterally shape world history.
Ramaphosa’s participation in the recent African peace mission to Ukraine and Russia suggests recognition of SA’s potential to influence the development of world affairs. Indeed, working together we can build consensus, advance innovative solutions and reinforce the rules and norms that maintain all states’ sovereign choices and protect against a “might is right” mindset.
As Australian foreign minister Penny Wong has emphasised: “We are not hostages to history. We decide what to do with the present.” Middle powers like Australia and SA, democracies, G20 and Commonwealth members, have agency to shape the world we want. The shared interests of our people to live in open, democratic, fair and prosperous societies depend on it.
• Brink is Australia’s high commissioner to SA
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