UK and Australia – a reinvigorated relationship

I was invited to give the Christmas lecture to the distinguished Australian Institute of International Affairs Victoria in Melbourne last week. It was an opportunity to reflect on the reinvigorated bilateral relationship, in which I have been privileged to play a small part over the last four years. You can read my speech here.

I identified a number of reasons for the rejuvenation of the partnership:

• Australia has been playing a particularly active role in a number of global bodies. In my first year here it chaired the Commonwealth; this year it chaired the G20 process; and in-between it has spent two years on the UN Security Council.

• The strength of the Australian economy has been an attractive business opportunity. Although growth is now slowing, it still looks good by the standards of many countries, and has not experienced a recession for 23 years. UK exports to Australia are up 65% over the last six years.

• The “post 9/11 decade” of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has meant our militaries have worked more closely together on operations than they had for decades. With ISISL increasingly a domestic as well as a foreign policy challenge, there is much scope for co-operation on terrorism.

• The current British government has been keen to revitalise ties with “old friends”. After 17 years with no visit by a British Foreign Secretary, William Hague visited every year in office. His successor, Phillip Hammond will be here in February for AUKMIN. British and Australian governments of all hues get on well with each other. But London-born, Oxford-educated Tony Abbott naturally has strong links to the UK.

• The rise of Asia makes us more, rather than less, relevant to each other. We both have a shared interest in regional security and in encouraging the political conditions for markets to work and economies to flourish. To those who suggest that Asia is Australia’s backyard, but a long way from Britain, I pointed out that London is closer to Beijing than Sydney is, and Perth Scotland is closer to Delhi than Perth Australia. (People don’t always believe this – but go ahead, google it!) I gave a number of examples of the UK’s interests in Asia and suggested that there are many areas where the UK and Australia can work together on Asian themes.