21 June 2024: The Week in Australian Foreign Affairs

This week in Australian foreign affairs: China’s Premier Li visits Australia; ministers in Papua New Guinea for 30th Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum; additional support for PNG landslide recovery; new science partnerships announced for Pacific and Southeast Asia, and more.

On 17 June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Canberra for their Annual Leaders’ Meeting. The nations signed a number of memorandum of understanding. These included the strengthening of Australia’s goods and services exports to China; to continue the Strategic Economic Dialogue on economic policy issues and bilateral economic cooperation; cooperation on climate change; and Education and Research Cooperation. On 18 June, Albanese accompanied Li to Perth where a banquet was held in the premier’s honour. The leaders also “attended the Australia-China CEO Roundtable—the first since 2017. This provided a platform for Chinese and Australian business leaders to exchange perspectives, and strengthen trade and investment between our two countries.” Li’s visit is the first by a Chinese Premier since 2017. Albanese welcomed Li’s “visit to Australia as an important milestone in stabilising our relationship with China.” During talks, the prime minister “raised the full range of Australia’s interests during the meeting, including consular, human rights, trade, maritime incidents, regional and multilateral issues.”

Also this week, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles accompanied Minster for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Controy, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security Clare O’Neill, and Assistant Minister for Trade, Assistant Minister for Manufacturing Tim Ayers to Papua New Guinea to attend the 30th Australia-Papua New Guinea Ministerial Forum. The Forum was “co-chaired by Minister Wong and Papua New Guinea Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Justin Tkatchenko BEM OL.” According to the statement released by Marles on 18 June, “The Ministerial Forum is an opportunity for Ministers from a range of key policy areas to advance our partnership and our shared priorities. This includes our economic relationship, strategic cooperation for security and stability, and development.” While there, the “delegation will also engage with Australian and Papua New Guinea businesses through the Annual Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Dialogue.”

On 20 June, while in Port Moresby, Marles joined Wong and Conroy to announce additional support for Papua New Guinea landslide recovery. “Announced during a visit to the site of the landslide in Mulitaka with PNG Defence Minister Dr Billy Joseph and Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas, the additional support will help restore essential services in the province including local infrastructure, healthcare and education.” The PNG requested additional support of $2 million “to restore connectivity of the Highlands Highway – the transport artery of the region.” Additionally, Australia will provide $220,000 for health services at the Mulitaka Health Centre and the Pokolip Health Post, including equipment and supplies for essential maternal health services, that will help to reopen delivery rooms at both centres.”

Wong joined Conroy and Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic on 21 June to announce “new partnerships between Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and governments across the Pacific and Southeast Asia.” According to the statement, under the program, “CSIRO will leverage its expertise across animal and human health, as well as its world-class facilities, to partner with countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Fiji to improve their ability to identify, track and respond to health emergencies.” Totalling $24.2 million, the new partnerships “will help to ensure frontline teams have the right skills to protect communities, and our region, from the spread of disease. As part of the program, CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness will receive over $12 million in funding to strengthen selected animal health laboratories in Southeast Asia, improve testing for infectious diseases at high-risk locations such as wildlife markets and boost field diagnostic networks in the Pacific.”

Also on 21 June, Wong joined Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts to announce the appointment of “Ms Rosemary Huxtable AO PSM to lead an independent review of the Australia’s Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Act 2020 (the Act), which underpins the Foreign Arrangements Scheme. The review will identify possible improvements to the operation of the Act and consider the effectiveness of the Act in meeting its objectives.” According to the release, “the Foreign Arrangements Scheme was introduced to ensure that Australian governments at all levels and Australian public universities enter agreements with foreign countries that do not adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations and are not inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy. Over the last three years, the Scheme has highlighted the scale and depth of Australia’s international engagement. More than 9,000 arrangements have been listed on the Public Register, across a broad range of themes and countries.”

On 19 June, following the Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum, Conroy joined Wong and Dreyfus to “announce a package of new initiatives to strengthen Papua New Guinea’s internal security and law and justice priorities” under the Australia-PNG Bilateral Security Agreement. The initiatives will include “support for PNG’s legal system to help PNG investigate and prosecute financial crime; investments in programs to improve access to justice for young people and remote and regional communities; [and] support to make PNG’s correctional facilities safer and more secure.”

Dr Adam Bartley is the managing editor for AIIA’s Australian Outlook and weekly columnist for The Week in Australian Foreign Affairs. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and resident fellow at the Elliot School for International Affairs, the George Washington University. Adam also has positions as post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation RMIT University  and as program manager of the AI Trilateral Experts Group. He can be found on Twitter here.

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