Trade agreements and strategic rivalry in Asia

Engaging the neighbours. Australia and ASEAN since 1974

“…68 The Obama administration was an active supporter of the TPP, which it saw as a key part of its rebalance towards the AsiaPacific that could bolster US economic ties after a period when US trade interests had been affected adversely by the development of bilateral and regional free trade agreements. 69 The pursuit in parallel of both RCEP and the TPP was yet another example of the pluralism and competition in regionalism in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific with groupings with differing memberships pursuing cooperation goals in parallel. 70 In this case, in 2015 RCEP included China but not the US (because it did not have a multilateral free trade agreement with ASEAN), while the TPP process included the US but not China (although other countries in the Asia-Pacific can join the process with the agreement by consensus of the existing participants).…”

“…Michael Wesley has argued that the 'Bali process' of discussion achieved considerable success in this period in building increased cooperation in the areas addressed: ' Australian officials realised from their experiences in gaining regional support for APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum over a decade earlier, that a proposal strongly supported by significant regional countries would carry more weight than a proposal made by Canberra alone.' 69 It was clear that AustraliaIndonesia cooperation was integral to the development of the Bali process. In another multilateral collaboration, Australia The election of former general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president in September 2004 brought to office a leader familiar with Australia (he had a son studying at university in Perth).…”

“…The meeting was notable as the first gathering of the ASEAN national secretaries-general to be held outside an ASEAN member. 69 Australia's General', Canberra, 15 April 1974. Willesee said after the meeting that ' Australia is honoured that ASEAN should have singled it out as the first country for discussions of this kind. We think that ASEAN's action denotes its confidence in Australia and the Australian Government will do what it can to justify that confidence '.…”

Engaging the neighbours: Australia and ASEAN since 1974

“…Indonesia at this time had echoed Malaysia's reservations about institutionalising APEC. 69 As John Ravenhill has argued, the invitation to Suharto was significant both for APEC and for ASEAN:…”

“…The meeting was notable as the first gathering of the ASEAN national secretaries-general to be held outside an ASEAN member. 69 Australia' General', Canberra, 15 April 1974. Willesee said after the meeting that ' Australia is honoured that ASEAN should have singled it out as the first country for discussions of this kind. We think that ASEAN's action denotes its confidence in Australia and the Australian Government will do what it can to justify that confidence '. 71 The inauguration of the multilateral relationship was given bipartisan support: just after the Canberra meeting, the Opposition's Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Andrew Peacock, said that the Opposition supported the move.…”