Australia's foreign minister has used a major speech in Canberra to celebrate the government's string of new security agreements, saying Labor has helped to build a region which is more stable and less deferential to authoritarian powers like Russia and China.
The government has been buoyed by multiple foreign policy victories this year.
It was crowned by last week's announcement that Australia and Indonesia had reached agreement on a potentially seismic new security treaty modelled on the 1995 pact struck by President Suharto and Paul Keating.
Penny Wong told the Australian Institute of International Affairs the new Indonesia agreement — along with the government's security and strategic pacts with Nauru, Tuvalu and Papua New Guinea — were "landmark" achievements which proved Australia could be an "architect" in the region.
"This architecture of groundbreaking agreements secures Australia in our region," she said.
"And they are premised on Australia's ability to meet nations where they are at, drawing on all elements of our national power."
Labor is still maintaining a frenetic pace in its regional diplomacy, seeking to nail down major agreements with Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Philippines in the coming months.
At times Senator Wong struck an almost triumphant tone, suggesting that Labor's record was vastly superior to the "mixed" results achieved under the Coalition in the decade before.
"None of this was thinkable in 2021," she said.
"We aren't just residents. We are architects. And for the past three and a half years we have been building Australia's future in our region."
The ABC has sought comment from the Coalition.
Staving off authoritarianism
In the speech, Senator Wong also said it was worth considering a "counterfactual" where democratic nations like Australia had quit the field or where multilateral diplomacy was allowed to wither away.
"Without our efforts and the efforts of our partners the world will be more deferential to authoritarians," she said.
"Without these efforts, the norms that middle powers rely on will be replaced by a new normal … where coercion and interference override sovereignty, where discourse is overwhelmed by disinformation and cyber attacks.
"Where diplomacy and dialogue are supplanted by threats and intimidation."
But she also warned that the "disruption" and "contest" in the region was now "permanent" and Australia could potentially lose out.
Despite striking several agreements in the region the government has not yet nailed down the Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu — where there is political opposition to any constraints on Vanuatu's decisions on security and critical infrastructure.
It is also yet to fully bed down a major police assistance package with Solomon Islands it announced almost a year ago.
Last week the Vanuatu government stoked concern in Canberra by moving to expel all foreign advisers and police officers working on national security from government buildings — a move that the Lowy Institute said left Vanuatu in a "delicate" position.
Pursuing 'middle power diplomacy'
Speaking on China, Senator Wong said Beijing would continue trying to "reshape the region according to its own interests".
"[And] Russia, Iran and North Korea will continue to sabotage and destabilise," Senator Wong said.
"With so much activity and contest, things may not go Australia's way every time. But we will keep pressing our national interest in the contest every day."
The foreign minister said American leadership in Asia remained "indispensable", but the region's future was "not only a matter for the great powers" and that middle powers like Australia were making "purposeful efforts" to shape it.
"I have described this as amplified middle power diplomacy — pursuing new alignments to better pursue our national interests while evolving traditional ideas of like-mindedness," she told the audience.
"What I mean is the efforts of middle powers to create more common ground and to transform that into shared opportunities."
Senator Wong also said Australia should not get drawn into a "false binary" when it came to China, saying the relationship was "more complex" than a debate around sacrificing sovereignty for the sake of economic ties.
"Our relationship is more complex than that. Our region is more complex than that," she said.
"What we want is a relationship that allows us to cooperate and engage with China, while prosecuting our national interests and building security and prosperity in our region.
"Because we know that China will continue to be a major influence on our region, as well as on the multilateral system which matters so much to Australia."
