ASEAN Leaders pose for the annual Family Photo during the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit 2024 in Melbourne, Tuesday, March 05, 2024
Welcome to the website of the Australian Mission to ASEAN! The Mission is responsible for advancing Australia’s interests with ASEAN. It was established in September 2013 in Jakarta, headquarters of the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN Committee of Permanent Representatives.
Australia sees ASEAN at the centre of a stable, peaceful, prosperous and secure region. The organisation and its members are vital to Australia’s interests. Considered as a bloc, ASEAN is our second largest trading partner. We are neighbours, connected by deep links between families, communities, educational institutions and businesses. Australia recognises ASEAN Centrality as key to the region’s stability and security, and we are committed to supporting ASEAN’s leadership. It has unmatched convening power, bringing together all the key players in the Indo-Pacific through its regional architecture.
We collaborate closely on ASEAN-led arrangements, such as the region’s premier leaders’ forum (the East Asia Summit), in the regional foreign and defence ministers’ fora, (the ASEAN Regional Forum and the ASEAN-Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus), and, of course, on the region’s trade and economic agenda.
On 27 October 2021, at the first annual ASEAN-Australia Summit, Australia and ASEAN opened a new chapter with the historic decision to establish a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). Since establishing the CSP, we’ve been working hard with our ASEAN partners on implementation, agreeing shared priorities, increasing resources and advancing exciting new programs, including the establishment of a package of ‘Australia for ASEAN’ initiatives’.
Australia has worked closely with ASEAN over the decades, since we became its first Dialogue Partner in 1974. On 4-6 March 2024, Australia held the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN-Australia Dialogue Relations. The ASEAN-Australia Joint Leaders’ Vision Statement and Melbourne Declaration outline our shared ambitions for the next 50 years of our partnership.
We hope you find this website useful for exploring the breadth and depth of Australia’s partnership with ASEAN.
ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
On 27 October 2021, at the first annual ASEAN-Australia Summit, Australia and ASEAN opened a new chapter with the historic decision to establish a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP).
Since establishing the CSP, we’ve been working hard with our ASEAN partners on implementation, agreeing shared priorities, increasing resources and advancing exciting new programs. This includes the establishment of a new package of ‘Australia for ASEAN’ initiatives’.
And this builds on Australia’s existing cooperation with ASEAN, which spans ASEAN’s three pillars: Economic; Socio-Cultural; and Political-Security.
Under the Economic pillar, we are supporting work on Digital Trade Standards, connectivity and sustainable infrastructure. We are also supporting the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement – the largest free trade agreement in the world, and working to update our regional free trade agreement with ASEAN and New Zealand.
Under the Socio-Cultural Pillar, we are contributing to the regional response to the pandemic by supporting ASEAN’s health security programs, promoting safe and fair labour migration across the region, and bolstering ASEAN bodies’ capacity to respond to human-induced crises.
And under the Political-Security Pillar, we are working with partners to counter human trafficking and supporting ASEAN’s agenda on women’s empowerment and Women, Peace and Security.
We hope you find this website useful for exploring the breadth and depth of Australia’s partnership with ASEAN.
