Asean and Australia: Navigating the future, together

It was an honor to be in Manila last week for the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meetings. ASEAN’s unmatched convening power was on full display, as countries from across the Indo-Pacific came together to build relationships and foster our region’s resilience.

The Philippines’ ASEAN Chair year theme, “Navigating Our Future, Together” perfectly captures the spirit of the ASEAN-Australia partnership: working together to find shared solutions to our region’s most pressing problems. As ASEAN’s oldest Dialogue Partner and Comprehensive Strategic Partner, Australia remains firmly committed to ASEAN centrality and ASEAN-led mechanisms.

For Australia, ASEAN is central to a resilient region. It sets expectations of responsible behavior and provides a platform for dialogue to build trust that helps prevent conflict. ASEAN has played a vital role in fostering peace and regional stability since its founding. On the eve of ASEAN’s 60th anniversary next year, we are living in challenging times, with heightened tensions and geopolitical shifts. A strong, united and resilient ASEAN is even more important.

The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), which marks its 50th anniversary this year, is a powerful example of ASEAN’s contribution to establishing the norms and values that have underwritten our region’s peace and prosperity. As Australia’s Foreign Minister, Senator the Hon Penny Wong said in Manila last week, through the TAC, “Southeast Asia showed the world that it would not be defined by rivalry. That restraint, dialogue and respect are not weaknesses, but strategic assets.”

Fifty years ago the drafters of the TAC – the Philippines among them – laid out principles for living together peacefully. Commitment to mutual respect; sovereignty and territorial integrity; the peaceful settlement of disputes; renouncing the threat or use of force. The TAC is architecture for living peacefully with difference. Principles that are as relevant today as they were 50 years ago.

The TAC underscores why countries make rules, and why we must work together to uphold them. For middle powers like Australia and the Philippines, rules give us more choice, more confidence and more agency in responding to geopolitical and geostrategic shifts. Through the ASEAN-Australia Joint Leaders’ Statement on Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management, agreed at the ASEAN Summits in Kuala Lumpur just last year, we are taking forward important work: promoting open communication and dialogue, building strategic trust and reducing the risk of miscalculation and misunderstanding in our region.

This year, the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) celebrates five years since its establishment in 2021. The CSP unlocked new resources, including the P8.81-billion (A$204 million) Aus4ASEAN Futures Initiative, and charted a path to deepen our partnership in ways that deliver lasting benefits for our people and our region. We are working together on pressing issues, like economic resilience, food and energy security, climate change action and health. It is a partnership driven by a shared desire for practical action with real impact for our citizens.

Amid global disruption affecting energy, fertilizer, food security and supply chains, Australia remains a reliable partner that is responding with targeted assistance, including through our development partnerships. While others have reduced or cut development funding to the region, Australia has prioritized the Indo-Pacific. Over 75 cents of every Australian development dollar benefits the Indo-Pacific, with P60.4 billion (A$1.4 billion) allocated to Southeast Asia in the 2026-2027 financial year.

ASEAN is already Australia’s second-largest two-way trading partner. Our two-way trade is at a record high – almost P8.622 trillion (A$200 billion), and two-way investment is approaching P12.933 trillion (A$300 billion). But we know there is more to do. Through Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, we are driving further trade and investment with Southeast Asia because we understand that shared prosperity underpins peace and stability.

We are also committed to ensuring our people can live, work and thrive in a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. For almost 20 years, the ASEAN-Australia Counter-Trafficking Program has strengthened regional governance and justice systems to protect the rights of victims of trafficking and bring perpetrators to justice. We are adapting our efforts to respond to the proliferation of scam centers.

Last week, our Foreign Minister also announced an P475-million (A$11-million) second phase for the ASEAN-Australia Political Security Partnership program. Together, we’ll continue our efforts to implement the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and tackle shared transnational crime challenges. The second phase of the program will also continue a strong focus on the maritime domain, which is at the heart of our shared interests. We’ll continue to work closely with the Philippines and ASEAN, such as through ASEAN Law of the Sea training and strengthening the role of the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum – which originated here in Manila.

Our CSP builds on over five decades of practical cooperation. ASEAN brings together this region where the world’s future is being shaped. Building relationships, shaping rules and fostering our shared resilience. As we celebrate 80 years of diplomatic relations with the Philippines, we have such a strong foundation – and together, ASEAN and Australia will continue to strengthen our partnership; navigating the future, together.

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Tiffany McDonald is the Australian Ambassador to the ASEAN.