Melissa Conley Tyler, an expert in diplomacy at the University of Melbourne and former national executive director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), has reacted to that report by asking why commentators are so surprised.
In a Wednesday column for the AIIA titled Is Australia Humble Enough to Learn from New Zealand? , Tyler says that while the countries are close in geography and culture, they often have different interests. Those old enough will remember a 90-year dispute over apples. But because of the close economic relationship and because Australians like New Zealand so much, the presumption is that they ll always get on, she writes.
The lack of publicity about the modest increase in the foreign aid budget reflects Australiaâs unease about promoting its soft power abroad in recent years. The federal government spends 10 times more on defence than it does on foreign aid, compared to a defence-to-aid spending ratio of five-to-one in 2013-14.
Australiaâs total diplomatic and development spending sits at about 1.3 per cent of the federal budget, well behind comparable countries such as Canada (1.9 per cent) and the Netherlands (4.3 per cent). The new spending over the coming years will include an additional $211 million in COVID-related aid, $500 million in support for vaccine access and $485 million for south-east Asia.
Face to face: Biden meeting Xi in 2013 in Beijing. Diplomatic chatter is suggesting that they meet in Singapore in March 2021 during the World Economic Forum there. AFP
IT could not have come at a more opportune time. After a long three weeks, where President Joe Biden affirmed there was “no reason” to call President Xi Jinping, the call finally happened just two days prior to the beginning of the Lunar Year of the Ox.
The key issue now: given the weight and importance of a healthy Sino-US relations to stabilise the whole of Indo-Pacific, how quickly must they meet?
Diplomatic chatter is suggesting that they meet in Singapore in March 2021 during the World Economic Forum there.