BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – It is a pleasure to be back in Brunei Darussalam as we mark important milestones this year. Fifty years since Australia became ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner, and forty years since Australia became one of Brunei Darussalam’s first diplomatic partners.
Three years ago, in 2021, when I was here in Brunei as Australia’s High Commissioner, ASEAN and Australia made the significant decision to establish a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). An achievement made possible by the support of Brunei as ASEAN Chair that year.
The establishment of our CSP sent a strong signal of the importance ASEAN and Australia placed on the relationship. It unlocked new resources, including Aus4ASEAN scholarships, the Digital Transformation and Future Skills Initiative and our flagship Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative (AUD$204 million over 10 years) which supports ASEAN priorities.
Fast forward to 2024, and the relationship continues to go from strength-to-strength in our golden jubilee year with ASEAN. To commemorate this anniversary, Australia hosted the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne in March.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was honoured to welcome His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, alongside other ASEAN Leaders, the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste and the Secretary-General of ASEAN to Melbourne.
Other Bruneian representatives from government, the private sector, academia and civil society participated in summit tracks on business; climate and clean energy; emerging leaders; and maritime cooperation.
His Majesty has regularly emphasised to Australian leaders that strengthening the education and skills of the next generation of Southeast Asians is crucial for ASEAN’s future, and that Australia has an important role to play. In response, the Australian government has already supported 100 “Aus4ASEAN” scholarships under the CSP – including ten Bruneians who had the honour of meeting with His Majesty in Melbourne during the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit. At the summit, Prime Minister Albanese announced additional Aus4ASEAN Scholarships, and I’m excited to see a further twelve Bruneian scholars in the 2024-2025 cohort.
The ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne brought together leaders from ASEAN and Australia to discuss the breadth of our cooperation and shared interest in a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. Leaders-laid out agreed perspectives on the strategic and geopolitical issues facing our region in the Melbourne Declaration.
That Declaration also outlined the expansive ASEAN-Australia cooperation that we deliver together to address both the risks and opportunities facing the Indo-Pacific.
Secondly, the leaders agreed the ASEAN-Australia Joint Leaders’ Vision Statement, which firmly places ASEAN at the centre of our efforts in the region and commits us to work together to promote strategic trust and an ASEAN-led rules-based regional architecture, which upholds international law. This speaks to the role we all play in maintaining and creating the kind of region in which we want to live. A region where no country dominates, and no country is dominated.
Like Brunei, Australia sees ASEAN Centrality at the forefront of maintaining a region that continues to prosper. ASEAN is the primary norm-setting body in our region and has unmatched convening power, setting expectations and speaking out with its collective voice. As Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said, the strength of this voice “resonates throughout the region when it speaks on its view of the importance of sovereignty and rules”.
At the heart of Australia’s approach is recognising that we cannot address shared challenges in the region without working together. Brunei and Australia are working hand-in-hand with ASEAN on some of the most pressing issues our region faces. We support an open, inclusive and prosperous region with ASEAN at its heart, consistent with the objectives and principles of the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
We are focused on bolstering two-way trade and investment for mutual prosperity, in line with Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. For example, Australia’s establishment of an AUD$2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility will catalyse Australian private sector investment into the region. The appointment of ten Australian business leaders as “Business Champions” (including Dr Nur Rahman for Brunei) will promote new opportunities.
Together, we are taking ambitious climate action, including through an AUD$6.9 million Energy Cooperation Package under the Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative, which is supporting the ASEAN Centre for Energy and the establishment of the ASEAN Centre for Climate Change in Brunei.
We’re also continuing our collaboration on mental health, building on the success of the first East Asia Summit Workshop on Mental Health which Australia and Brunei co-chaired in 2021. Together we are championing the importance of mental health cooperation in our region.
Much has changed since the ASEAN-Australia partnership began in 1974, but our principles remain the same: respect, understanding and working together. Australia is invested, engaged and committed to working with Brunei and ASEAN to realise our shared vision for a peaceful, stable and prosperous future.
• Tiffany McDonald is Australia’s Ambassador to ASEAN and is currently in Brunei on her first visit in this role. From 2020-21, she served as Australia’s High Commissioner to Brunei.