Malcolm Turnbull is urging business leaders to ride the economic surge from Asia’s rising middle class amid a dramatic show of support in the region for closer ties with Australia.
The Prime Minister is using a two-day summit with regional leaders to outline a boost to Australian jobs from stronger links as long as business leaders tap into the growing wealth of south-east Asia.
In a speech to business leaders at the summit, Mr Turnbull emphasises the four-fold rise in the middle class to 160 million potential customers among member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
Fairfax Media revealed on Friday that Indonesian President Joko Widodo said it was a “good idea” for Australia to join the ASEAN group of 10 nations, a significant show of support in a relationship that has been strained in decades past.
Mr Turnbull and Mr Joko will meet business leaders together in Sydney on Saturday on the sidelines of the special ASEAN summit, which ends with a leader’s retreat to discuss trade and foreign policy on Sunday.
The Prime Minister wants Australian business to sharpen its focus on Indonesia and neighbouring countries, arguing in his remarks to the forum that six of the ASEAN economies are forecast to grow faster than China over the next five years.
This should increase the ASEAN middle class to 160 million by 2030 under forecasts from the International Monetary Fund.
Mr Joko’s remarks, made in an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media in Indonesia, are seen by Australian officials as highly positive for relations with ASEAN given the friendship between Mr Turnbull and the Indonesian President, who is commonly known as Jokowi.
“Can I say we are really honoured and touched by the warmth of his remarks about Australia,” Mr Turnbull said yesterday.
“We have a very warm relationship with Jokowi... he is a great leader and a good friend.”
Mr Turnbull added that “ASEAN matters are a matter for ASEAN” – a sign of Australian caution on an issue that would take years to resolve and could only be decided by a consensus among all 10 member states.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said that if Australia was “ever given the honour” of being offered membership it would take the offer very seriously.
“But I stress that ASEAN is an association of 10 member states and any changes of that membership is a matter entirely for that membership,” Ms Bishop said, speaking at a press conference with Indonesian foreign minister, Retno Marsudi.
One of the strongest responses to Mr Joko’s remarks came from Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong, who said Labor had put a priority on ASEAN since Gough Whitlam was prime minister.
“It is critically important to Australia and the region,” Senator Wong said of the group.
“If ASEAN members agreed to President Jokowi’s welcome proposal, a Labor government would make it a priority to work with ASEAN to enable Australian membership.”
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did not address the prospect of Australian membership, but said that the close relationship between Australia and Singapore was underpinned by a shared desire to deepen ties between Australia and South East Asia.
“Australia believes its future lies in Asia,” said Mr Lee.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute fellow Graeme Dobell has argued that Australia should aim for full membership of ASEAN by 2024.
“The question now is how close do we want to be, and how close do they need us to be. In an earlier era this wasn’t possible, but some of those issues have been dealt with or overtaken,” he said.
Writing for the Lowy Institute this week, Greg Earl, a member of the Australia ASEAN Council board, argued that Australia could be diplomatically tested by the behaviour of other member nations if it joined the group.
David Crowe is the chief political correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Nick O'Malley is a senior writer and a former US correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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