Australian FM Julie Bishop's Indo-Pacific oration in New Delhi on Indo-Australia ties and support for rules based international order
From https://www.facebook.com/JBishopMP/photos/a.466372936731947.90820.463915156977725/1389655634403668/
Indo-Pacific Oration II by Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon Julie Bishop MP, http://foreignminister.gov.au/speeches/Pages/2017/jb_sp_170718.aspx, 18-Jul-2017
Some extracts from it are given below [along with some comments of mine suitably marked]:
Today I had the pleasure of productive meetings with Prime Minister Modi, and the Minister for Defence and Finance Mr Jaitley, and my counterpart, the Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj; and these meetings added to our deep and growing friendship.
...
Today bilateral trade between Australia and India has reached almost $21 billion and India is now our ninth largest trading partner and with boundless potential for growth.
As India looks to increase its energy supply and security, through a combination of traditional and nuclear and renewable sources, to support its growth, Australia is well placed as a reliable supplier of resources and technology.
And here’s another fact. It’s worth recalling that the first mobile call in India took place almost 22 years ago to the day on 31 July 1995 when the Union Telecom Minister spoke to the Chief Minister of West Bengal using hand-held mobile phones – carried on Modi-Telstra’s MobileNet service – which was a joint venture between India’s Modi Group and Australia’s Telstra.
Australian residents of Indian origin are the fourth largest group of Australians born overseas, representing close to half a million people, or almost 2% of our total population (this from the latest Census in 2016).
Indian Australians make a strong contribution to our country, across all fields – business, science and medicine, education, arts and culture and sports.
In June this year, Professor Rajiv Khanna, who was born in Punjab, received the Officer of the Order of Australia Medal – one of the highest awards in our honours system – for his work in immunology, in particular in developing innovative cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer.
India is the second-largest source of international students in Australia – and Australia is one of the most popular destinations for international students worldwide.
...
India is a natural leader in the Indian Ocean region and globally and we support the role it has played in helping shape the strategic and economic environment.
Prime Minister Modi articulated the opportunity that India’s rise represents, in his speech at January’s Raisina Dialogue here in New Delhi, when he said:
“[India’s] actions and aspirations, capacities and human capital, democracy and demography, and strength and success will continue to be an anchor for all round regional and global progress. [India’s] economic and political rise represents a regional and global opportunity of great significance. It is a force for peace, a factor for stability and an engine for regional and global prosperity.”
The changes taking place are also leading to rising strategic competition in the maritime region stretching from the Middle East to the United States.
Military outlays in our region expanded by over 5.5 per cent in 2015-16, easily outpacing the one per cent overall global increase in military spending.
By 2020, combined military budgets in our region are forecast to exceed US$600 billion. Now this is significant, given US expenditure is currently at $611 billion and Europe is at US$334 billion (2016 figures).
...
Australia and India share converging interests and similar outlooks on the strategic changes taking place in the region and globally.
I will now outline in more detail the type of Indo-Pacific region that we believe will best support its ongoing development and prosperity.
Our first objective for the Indo-Pacific is for Australia to be an active participant, in partnership with other nations, in ensuring that a predictable international rules-based order is respected and upheld, as the foundation for peaceful cooperation in the region.
The post-World War II order has underpinned the extraordinary economic growth and achievement we have seen in many parts of the world, and more recently in our region.
The international rules-based order has allowed Indo-Pacific states – large and small – to pursue their national interests while giving us the tools to work together and to resolve disputes peacefully when they arise.
It is an approach that recognises competition between states, and in which states agree to rules for regulating these disputes, and their behaviour toward each other.
Respecting negotiated and agreed rules ensures a better outcome for all than if countries each pursue their interests separately.
Increasingly, the rules based order is coming under pressure.
Strategic competition is leading to unilateral actions and a zero-sum conception of power relations.
Rising nationalism is leading to a narrower definition of national interests, and a more transactional approach to negotiations.
These factors reduce the prospect of multilateral cooperation in the collective interest.
As robust democracies, Australia and India share a system of government where leaders are accountable and the rights of citizens are respected.
Law courts are professional and independent, property and intellectual property rights are protected, and there are limitations on government intervention in commercial and social affairs.
Democratically elected leaders learn the habits of negotiation, compromise and cooperation, including with those with whom they have disagreements.
These democratic principles and practices, when translated into foreign affairs, are the essence of an international rules-based system.
As a globally integrated, top 20 economy, the 13th largest, and in our 26th consecutive year of economic growth, Australia has a huge stake in the success of the rules-based order.
Other nations that seek to continue their development must be equally interested in this order.
Collectively, we need to build and strengthen international institutions that promote cooperation and manage integrated and competing interests in fair and transparent ways.
The maritime domain is particularly important.
Trading nations depend on free and secure maritime trade, and we uphold the rights of nations to freedom of the seas and skies.
It is important that all states respect international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), using it to guide their behaviour and resolve disputes. I applaud India for successfully and peacefully resolving a long-running maritime boundary dispute with Bangladesh in 2014, under UNCLOS.
Australia is currently participating in a conciliation process under UNCLOS to agree maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste.
...
This approach to international dispute resolution, founded on respect for international law, sets an example that allows us to look upon the dynamic Indo-Pacific region with hope and ambition, rather than anxiety.
In the years and decades ahead, the greatest hope for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific lies in all nations respecting and contributing to international law, to protect national sovereignty and strengthen the norms that guide relations between countries.
Our region also has an important role to play in setting and upholding global rules and norms in the multilateral arena.
We need to ensure that our region’s perspective – which is a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to the maintenance of global peace and security – is reflected in the multilateral system.
...
The United States is our trusted ally and defence, strategic and economic partner, and we were pleased to see the highly successful visit of Prime Minister Modi to Washington and the obvious regard between the Prime Minister and President Trump and his administration.
We must all continue to engage closely with China, one of the most important bilateral partners for all countries in the region.
All our economies benefit from China’s growth, investment and economic partnerships. It is in no-one’s interest for the Chinese economy to falter.
Our objective must be to encourage China to exercise its economic and strategic weight in a way that respects the sovereign equality of states, that upholds and strengthens the rules-based order and that benefits all countries and peoples.
We are living through a period of global strategic transition, increasing and sharpening competition, particularly here in the Indo-Pacific.
Yet we are also living in a time of extraordinary opportunity.
Together with other partners in the Indo-Pacific, Australia and India can harness this opportunity and shape the region’s future for the benefit of all.
We must continue to champion free and open trade, more investment, greater innovation and integration, to drive wealth and prosperity for all states.
We must work towards a future where relations between states are predictable and transparent, governed by a shared acceptance of the principles of international law.
Our international rules-based order is a huge asset – one that offers great avenues for deepening cooperation and resolving disputes peacefully.
This is the future that Australia is invested in and in which India, as much as any country, has a massive stake.
I am confident that this is a future we can achieve when our countries work together for enduring peace and prosperity.
---------------
There also was a short article of FM Julie Bishop in The Hindu which seems to be a compressed version of the above oration: Australia and India: partners in regional security and prosperity, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/partners-in-regional-security-and-prosperity/article19303212.ece, dated 19th July 2017.
I made the following comment (slightly edited) on The Hindu article webpage (and similar comment on above mentioned Facebook post of Australian FM Julie Bishop):
Excellent article by Australian FM Julie Bishop. The post-world war II international order has been largely rules based as compared to the previous sheer military power based orders including the European colonization era which was devastating for European colonies including India (though it did have some positive side-effects too). This largely rules based (post-world war II) international order has allowed people of many countries in the world, including India, to lead far more prosperous, healthy and fulfilling lives as compared to life in the earlier international order.
I agree with Bishop's statement that democratic principles and practices are the essence of an international rules-based system. It is good to see that India and Australia as leading democracies in the Indo-Pacific region are co-operating in upholding the current rules-based international order.
--- end comment ---
[I thank facebook.com/JBishopMP, foreignminister.gov.au and wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
Some extracts from it are given below [along with some comments of mine suitably marked]:
Today I had the pleasure of productive meetings with Prime Minister Modi, and the Minister for Defence and Finance Mr Jaitley, and my counterpart, the Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj; and these meetings added to our deep and growing friendship.
...
Today bilateral trade between Australia and India has reached almost $21 billion and India is now our ninth largest trading partner and with boundless potential for growth.
As India looks to increase its energy supply and security, through a combination of traditional and nuclear and renewable sources, to support its growth, Australia is well placed as a reliable supplier of resources and technology.
And here’s another fact. It’s worth recalling that the first mobile call in India took place almost 22 years ago to the day on 31 July 1995 when the Union Telecom Minister spoke to the Chief Minister of West Bengal using hand-held mobile phones – carried on Modi-Telstra’s MobileNet service – which was a joint venture between India’s Modi Group and Australia’s Telstra.
[Ravi: Hmm. I would not have expected that to be Indian mobile call history! Interesting and quite fascinating!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_India#Mobile_telephony states "In August 1995, then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu made the first mobile phone call in India to then Union Telecom Minister Sukhram." The reference link, Kolkata connects India to 4G era, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Kolkata-connects-India-to-4G-era/articleshow/12617655.cms, dated 11th April 2012 gives the additional detail of the Modi Telestra service in Kolkata which had launched the service with Jyoti Basu's historic call.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telstra mentions: "Telstra Corporation Ltd. (known as Telstra) is an Australian telecommunications and media company which builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets voice, mobile, internet access, pay television and other entertainment products and services. Telstra is Australia's largest telecommunications company. Telstra has a long history in Australia, originating together with Australia Post as a government department, the Postmaster-General's Department." end-Ravi]Our people-to-people links are also stronger than ever.
Australian residents of Indian origin are the fourth largest group of Australians born overseas, representing close to half a million people, or almost 2% of our total population (this from the latest Census in 2016).
Indian Australians make a strong contribution to our country, across all fields – business, science and medicine, education, arts and culture and sports.
In June this year, Professor Rajiv Khanna, who was born in Punjab, received the Officer of the Order of Australia Medal – one of the highest awards in our honours system – for his work in immunology, in particular in developing innovative cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer.
India is the second-largest source of international students in Australia – and Australia is one of the most popular destinations for international students worldwide.
...
India is a natural leader in the Indian Ocean region and globally and we support the role it has played in helping shape the strategic and economic environment.
Prime Minister Modi articulated the opportunity that India’s rise represents, in his speech at January’s Raisina Dialogue here in New Delhi, when he said:
“[India’s] actions and aspirations, capacities and human capital, democracy and demography, and strength and success will continue to be an anchor for all round regional and global progress. [India’s] economic and political rise represents a regional and global opportunity of great significance. It is a force for peace, a factor for stability and an engine for regional and global prosperity.”
The changes taking place are also leading to rising strategic competition in the maritime region stretching from the Middle East to the United States.
Military outlays in our region expanded by over 5.5 per cent in 2015-16, easily outpacing the one per cent overall global increase in military spending.
By 2020, combined military budgets in our region are forecast to exceed US$600 billion. Now this is significant, given US expenditure is currently at $611 billion and Europe is at US$334 billion (2016 figures).
...
Australia and India share converging interests and similar outlooks on the strategic changes taking place in the region and globally.
I will now outline in more detail the type of Indo-Pacific region that we believe will best support its ongoing development and prosperity.
Our first objective for the Indo-Pacific is for Australia to be an active participant, in partnership with other nations, in ensuring that a predictable international rules-based order is respected and upheld, as the foundation for peaceful cooperation in the region.
The post-World War II order has underpinned the extraordinary economic growth and achievement we have seen in many parts of the world, and more recently in our region.
The international rules-based order has allowed Indo-Pacific states – large and small – to pursue their national interests while giving us the tools to work together and to resolve disputes peacefully when they arise.
It is an approach that recognises competition between states, and in which states agree to rules for regulating these disputes, and their behaviour toward each other.
Respecting negotiated and agreed rules ensures a better outcome for all than if countries each pursue their interests separately.
Increasingly, the rules based order is coming under pressure.
Strategic competition is leading to unilateral actions and a zero-sum conception of power relations.
Rising nationalism is leading to a narrower definition of national interests, and a more transactional approach to negotiations.
These factors reduce the prospect of multilateral cooperation in the collective interest.
As robust democracies, Australia and India share a system of government where leaders are accountable and the rights of citizens are respected.
Law courts are professional and independent, property and intellectual property rights are protected, and there are limitations on government intervention in commercial and social affairs.
Democratically elected leaders learn the habits of negotiation, compromise and cooperation, including with those with whom they have disagreements.
These democratic principles and practices, when translated into foreign affairs, are the essence of an international rules-based system.
As a globally integrated, top 20 economy, the 13th largest, and in our 26th consecutive year of economic growth, Australia has a huge stake in the success of the rules-based order.
Other nations that seek to continue their development must be equally interested in this order.
Collectively, we need to build and strengthen international institutions that promote cooperation and manage integrated and competing interests in fair and transparent ways.
The maritime domain is particularly important.
Trading nations depend on free and secure maritime trade, and we uphold the rights of nations to freedom of the seas and skies.
It is important that all states respect international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), using it to guide their behaviour and resolve disputes. I applaud India for successfully and peacefully resolving a long-running maritime boundary dispute with Bangladesh in 2014, under UNCLOS.
Australia is currently participating in a conciliation process under UNCLOS to agree maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste.
...
This approach to international dispute resolution, founded on respect for international law, sets an example that allows us to look upon the dynamic Indo-Pacific region with hope and ambition, rather than anxiety.
In the years and decades ahead, the greatest hope for peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific lies in all nations respecting and contributing to international law, to protect national sovereignty and strengthen the norms that guide relations between countries.
Our region also has an important role to play in setting and upholding global rules and norms in the multilateral arena.
We need to ensure that our region’s perspective – which is a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to the maintenance of global peace and security – is reflected in the multilateral system.
...
The United States is our trusted ally and defence, strategic and economic partner, and we were pleased to see the highly successful visit of Prime Minister Modi to Washington and the obvious regard between the Prime Minister and President Trump and his administration.
We must all continue to engage closely with China, one of the most important bilateral partners for all countries in the region.
All our economies benefit from China’s growth, investment and economic partnerships. It is in no-one’s interest for the Chinese economy to falter.
Our objective must be to encourage China to exercise its economic and strategic weight in a way that respects the sovereign equality of states, that upholds and strengthens the rules-based order and that benefits all countries and peoples.
We are living through a period of global strategic transition, increasing and sharpening competition, particularly here in the Indo-Pacific.
Yet we are also living in a time of extraordinary opportunity.
Together with other partners in the Indo-Pacific, Australia and India can harness this opportunity and shape the region’s future for the benefit of all.
We must continue to champion free and open trade, more investment, greater innovation and integration, to drive wealth and prosperity for all states.
We must work towards a future where relations between states are predictable and transparent, governed by a shared acceptance of the principles of international law.
Our international rules-based order is a huge asset – one that offers great avenues for deepening cooperation and resolving disputes peacefully.
This is the future that Australia is invested in and in which India, as much as any country, has a massive stake.
I am confident that this is a future we can achieve when our countries work together for enduring peace and prosperity.
---------------
There also was a short article of FM Julie Bishop in The Hindu which seems to be a compressed version of the above oration: Australia and India: partners in regional security and prosperity, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/partners-in-regional-security-and-prosperity/article19303212.ece, dated 19th July 2017.
I made the following comment (slightly edited) on The Hindu article webpage (and similar comment on above mentioned Facebook post of Australian FM Julie Bishop):
Excellent article by Australian FM Julie Bishop. The post-world war II international order has been largely rules based as compared to the previous sheer military power based orders including the European colonization era which was devastating for European colonies including India (though it did have some positive side-effects too). This largely rules based (post-world war II) international order has allowed people of many countries in the world, including India, to lead far more prosperous, healthy and fulfilling lives as compared to life in the earlier international order.
I agree with Bishop's statement that democratic principles and practices are the essence of an international rules-based system. It is good to see that India and Australia as leading democracies in the Indo-Pacific region are co-operating in upholding the current rules-based international order.
--- end comment ---
[I thank facebook.com/JBishopMP, foreignminister.gov.au and wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts from their websites on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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