Political and Cultural Engagement between Australia and Asia

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THE WORLD

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Contents
Political and Cultural engagement between Australia and Asia.............................................................2
Australia’s engagement with Indonesia.................................................................................................3
Australia’s engagement with Japan.......................................................................................................3
Australia’s engagement with China.......................................................................................................4
Australia’s engagement with New Zealand and Pacific.........................................................................4
Common ambition of Australia and New Zealand.............................................................................4
Australia’s decision to abandon a policy of non-interference in pacific state....................................5
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................5

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Political and Cultural engagement between Australia and Asia
Different governments in Australia have made efforts to improve the political ties with
countries in the Asian region. From years Australia had strong tie-ups with the countries in
the Asian region. This is the reason why many governments have opened its gates for the
Asian migrants. Numbers of centres where Asian language is taught has increased. But in the
last few years, Australia has shifted towards America which has made their political relations
with Asia little poor. Due to increasing numbers of Asians in Australia, the local people
started to fear about their increasing political power hence conflicts among both the
communities have increased.
The cultural relationship has also strengthened between the two regions as the numbers of
people in Australia from Asian backgrounds have enhanced. This is attributed by the fact that
younger people have stronger relationship with each other than the people that were older.
The cultural exchange program at the university and college level is the major reason for this
enhancement of bond. The increase in the numbers of restaurants that serves Asian cuisine
has also been considered as one of the major reasons for it. Chinese restaurants have become
an essential part of the most of the cities in Australia (Pietsch and Aarons, 2012). Films,
literature and music of the Asian regions have also started to make its strong presence in the
Australian society. Cultural events like festivals are now celebrated by people of Australia
with their friends from Asian region.
Australia’s engagement with Indonesia
Australia has been a strong partner with Indonesia for a longer period of time. Now it has
become more essential for the Australia to have healthier relation with Indonesia. There are
economic, military and political reasons for it. Indonesia acts as a strong military importance
for Australia as it is closest to the Australian coastal region. The economic growth of
Indonesia is very fast and hence it can act as a partner for the trade. Since many powers are
emerging in this region hence Indonesia will act a strong ally to regain control in the Asia
pacific region. China is controlling the market in the Asian region hence the players like
Indonesia acts as players to control the expanding powers of China. It is also to be understood
that Indonesia and America did not have healthy relations with each other (White, 2018). In
such an environment, maintaining the balance between both the partners is a challenge for the
Australia. One of the greatest benefits with Indonesia is that it lacks in terms of political will
hence do not pose a serious threat to Australia like the other Asian partners like India and