Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will declare the post-1945 world order “is no longer fit for purpose” and warn China and the United States that the Indo-Pacific is not a “chessboard” for global superpowers. Source: ABC News.
In a major foreign policy speech to be delivered in New York, Mr Albanese will say Australia needs to help shape the new global order by building new relationships, standing up for the rules governing how countries interact with each other and rejecting the notion that might is right.
Underscoring the stark warning, Mr Albanese signed a decade-long security agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, local time, and announced another $60 million in funding to help the country defend itself against Russia.
Mr Albanese will identify the strategic competition between China and the US as the most consequential factor shaping the region.
“The Indo-Pacific is not a chessboard on which superpowers move the pieces,” he will say.
“How Washington and Beijing manage their relationship matters profoundly. But it cannot be the only lens through which we see the region.
“Its countries are not spectators. They are shaping its future and writing their own script.”
Mr Albanese will deliver the speech at a ceremony tonight where he will be awarded the Atlantic Council Global Citizen Award.
It comes a day after US President Donald Trump stood on the floor of the United Nations and threatened to “annihilate” Iran, if the country failed to agree to a deal to end the war, and warned Cuba, a “failed state”, would fall.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Trump very publicly slapped down a push from a coalition of middle powers, including Australia, for global regulations to ensure humans remained in control of AI, declaring the US had no plans to rein in the powerful technology.
“The post-1945 world order is no longer fit for purpose,” Mr Albanese will say according to draft excerpts of his speech.
“Universal institutions that remain necessary are now not always sufficient for the challenges we face.
“Australia’s response to this is to actively seek to shape and build the order that replaces the old.”
FULL STORY
Albanese to tell China and US the Indo-Pacific not a ‘chessboard’ for superpowers (Jane Norman in New York, ABC News)
