Australia-ASEAN Summit: Prospering In Partnership
Australia and ASEAN have a strong partnership, focusing on trade and mutual interests. The Australia-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership promotes cooperation in various areas. Future plans include enhancing education and economic growth.
Over the past 50 years, Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have forged a strong and enduring partnership, rooted in shared values and mutual interests. This relationship has deepened significantly over the years, culminating in the establishment of the historic Australia-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in 2021.
The CSP has been integral in accelerating inter-regional cooperation across a number of focus areas, including the energy transition, digital economy, health and human rights. At its core, this strategic alignment reflects the shared commitment of both parties to building a secure, prosperous and resilient region.
In October 2024, the 4th ASEAN-Australia Summit was held in Vientiane, Laos, under the theme of “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience.” Designed as a platform to solidify regional partnerships, the summit emphasised the importance of strengthening ASEAN’s community-building efforts, promoting infrastructure development, narrowing development gaps and fostering economic integration.
While ambitious, these goals are achievable through deeper cooperation between Australia and ASEAN.
A Deepening Relationship
Over the past decade, ASEAN has emerged as one of Australia’s most important trading partners. In 2023, bilateral trade between the two surpassed US$121.6 billion, eclipsing major economies such as Japan and the United States.
Exhibit 1: ASEAN’s export of goods to Australia, 2014-2023 (in billion US$)
Source: ASEANstats
At the same time, there has been a substantial increase in the value of Australian goods entering ASEAN markets. Notably, Australian imports to ASEAN surged in the wake of the supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the resilience of the economic relationship and its immense untapped potential. Moreover, Australia’s two-way investment stock with ASEAN has grown substantially, touching US$186.9 billion in 2023.
Exhibit 2: ASEAN’s import of goods from Australia, 2014-2023 (in billion US$)
Source: ASEANstats
Free trade is a central component of the Australia-ASEAN relationship, emphasised by their membership in various trade treaties. Both Australia and ASEAN economies are key members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest free trade agreement in terms of GDP. In 2010, ASEAN signed onto the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), a comprehensive trade agreement designed to facilitate liberalise trade and investment barriers between these markets.
The AANZFTA was upgraded in 2022 to broaden its impacts for micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs), sustainable development and education services, while further enhancing provisions on e-commerce, competition, customs procedures and other key areas.
Towards 2040
To capitalise on the momentum of the relationship, Australia has unveiled its Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, a roadmap focused on deepening linkages with ASEAN across 10 priority sectors, including agriculture, green energy, healthcare, digital economy and education. As part of the strategy, a significant US$1.3 billion investment financing facility has been allocated to catalyse Australian private sector investment in Southeast Asia, particularly in infrastructure and renewable energy.
Despite having only been launched in June 2024, the economic strategy is already bearing fruit. The initiative has facilitated connections between 44 Australian companies and potential ASEAN business partners. Meanwhile, the Landing Pads established by Austrade in Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam are proving instrumental in supporting Australian tech services companies as they expand into Southeast Asia’s thriving digital markets—an estimated US$1 trillion opportunity.
To foster economic growth and sustainable development, Australia has also deployed Investment Deal Teams across Southeast Asia, that are responsible for facilitating investments in critical sectors like infrastructure, clean energy, agriculture, healthcare, technology and advanced manufacturing. With hubs in Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta and Singapore, these teams are actively connecting Australian investors with promising opportunities in the region.
Moreover, Australia has made it easier for Southeast Asian businesspeople to travel to Australia by extending the validity of its Business Visitor Visa to up to five years. Visa holders can now make multiple trips to Australia—each lasting up to three months—for various business purposes, including negotiating contracts, conducting business inquiries, attending conferences or trade fairs or participating in government-to-government activities.
The CSP also continues to be an important platform, particularly through three key initiatives:
The first is Australia’s Aus4ASEAN Digital Transformation and Future Skills initiative, which is currently actively supporting 350 vocational scholars to pursue their studies in Australia in 2023. Formed in part to further fulfil Australia’s talent needs, the initiative facilitates technical assistance partnerships with Australian institutions as well as crucial dialogues on skills policy development.
The second pillar of the CSP’s work is its Aus4ASEAN Scholarships, which supports over 175 ASEAN leaders to study in Australia in areas aligned with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), such as maritime affairs, connectivity, economic development and sustainability. Each ASEAN Member State is allocated 10 scholarships, and currently 100 scholars are enrolled at Australian institutions. This initiative not only equips future leaders with skills and knowledge relevant to the AOIP, it also fosters stronger people-to-people ties between ASEAN and Australia, laying a solid foundation of mutual understanding that only strengthens economic cooperation.
Lastly, under the Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative, the CSP supports a number of joint projects to bolster ASEAN digital economy priorities. These include an investment toolkit for smart city financing, a study on the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, advancements in the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, the development of the ASEAN Plan of Action on Science, Technology and Innovation (APASTI) and projects to further the AOIP.
What The Future Holds
Through trials and tribulations, the ASEAN-Australia relationship has proven to be resilient and looks to only grow stronger with time. In celebration of their longstanding history, the two partners celebrated 50 years of dialogue relations at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit held in March 2024.
As the two partners approach new horizons of growth, and particularly in the face of geopolitical uncertainty, ASEAN and Australia have revealed their next five-year strategy for the CSP. The 2025-2029 CSP outlines three key areas of cooperation:
- political and security cooperation in strengthening regional security and stability;
- socio-cultural cooperation in enhancing education, public health and climate change adaptation and mitigation; and
- economic cooperation in promoting growth in finance, ICT, energy, agriculture & forestry, blue economy and tourism.
By leveraging their complementary strengths, ASEAN and Australia can deepen business-to-business and people-to-people ties and unlock significant potential for economic growth, cultural exchange and long-lasting peace.
Source : Australia-ASEAN Summit: Prospering In Partnership
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