3 - Balancing ‘Asia’ against Australian Values

Summary

Over the period 1996–2000 the handling of ’Asia’ as a theme in Australian foreign relations altered radically. The change could not have been easily predicted at the beginning of the tenure of the Coalition government in 1996. The new administration agreed with the previous one in insisting that the ’Asia Pacific is the region of highest foreign and trade policy priority’ for Australia, and predicted that East Asia would become ’even more important to Australia in trade and investment terms’. In addition to this, the new government ministers who were concerned with Asian relations – the Foreign, Trade, and Defence ministers – were obviously diligent in the way they set about their business in the region. Although there were a number of differences in emphasis between the new government and its predecessor, some offering genuine advantages, former prime minister Paul Keating himself noted the continuities, and these continuities remained predominant until 1999.