The Necessity of the ADF Establishing and Strengthening the Security of Our Neighbours in South East Asia and the South Pacific

Running head: THE NECESSITY OF THE ADF ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHEING
THE SECURITY OF OUR NEIGHBOURS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH
PACIFIC
THE NECESSITY OF THE ADF ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHEING THE SECURITY
OF OUR NEIGHBOURS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
By Staff Cadet First Name Surname
“ On one hand Australia has sought to define itself economically and quasi-politically as
an Asian state. On the other hand it has explicitly identified the United States as its vital security
partner.
By Donald E. Weatherbee (2014)
Introduction
Australia in spite of being a quasi-political state, needs to secure its relations with the
world powers like the Unites States, Indonesia and the other South Pacific nations as well..
Australia is a leading trading nation and it’s foreign and international relations are influenced by
its position in the world. However according to Beeson and Richard (2014), Australia as a nation
it lacks strength. Therefor in order to increase the nation’s production in the export of goods and
services, Australia needs to improve its international relations. Australia pursues its interest in
the South Pacific on a regional and bilateral basis. The structure of the essay deals with the
necessity of the Australian Defence Force to increase its security and relations with the South
Asian nations. Firstly the military strength that the nation possesses has been discussed about

1
THE NECESSITY OF THE ADF ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHEING THE SECURITY OF
OUR NEIGHBOURS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFICalong with its relation with the South Pacific Nations. The need of Australia to strengthen its
relation with USA has been discussed in the next stage followed by how and why it needs to
improve the same with Indonesia.
Australian Military Strengths and its relation with South Pacific
The Australian Defense Force which is responsible for the security and the defense of
Australia comprises of three units which provides service to the nation. They are the Royal
Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The
South Pacific is considered as the “Near Abroad” of Australia and thus it is a part of the
country’s natural sphere of intelligence. The security in the South Pacific region has proved to be
one of the prime concerns of the Australian security force (Dibb and Brabin-Smith, 2017).
Australia in the recent years have supported the South Asian countries like Indonesia, Singapore,
Malaysia and Thailand. These nations shared limited cooperation on the regional resources
incluying water. Greater levels of cooperation were required to manage its resources to ensure
their long term sustainability and maintain their regional stability. Australia has thus looked into
their sustainable development since the nation pursues its interests in both the regional as well as
the bilateral exercises. These exercises have helped to resolve all the issues between the island
nations. The Australian Defense Cooperation Program has helped in the complementation of this
assistance. According to Schultz (2014), the bilateral cooperation of the Defense Cooperation
program involves the ADF advisors, the capacity building initiatives and the infrastructure
projects which has enhanced the defense related capabilities of the regional partner nations. The
multilateral cooperation performs through the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The PIF has a
responsibility for the security of the nations and has four declarations working under it. They are
the 1992 Honiara Declaration on Law Enforcement Cooperation, the 1997 Aitutaki Declaration

2
THE NECESSITY OF THE ADF ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHEING THE SECURITY OF
OUR NEIGHBOURS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFICon Regional Security Cooperation, the 2000 Biketawa Declaration and the 2002 Nasonini
Declaration on Regional Security. These declarations are required for the need for assistance at
the regional level to support the national institutions in the law sector, the security sector, as well
as in the accountability mechanisms. (Baldino and Carr (2016),
However there is a contradictory discussion. The Australian security could be
undermined by the anarchical powers of the South Pacific countries and this had always been a
concern (Scott, 2013). Australia has always therefore emphasized on the security in the South
Pacidic and the South Asian regions. However, the global partners like United States, Ireland,
United Kingdom, China, Japan consider Australia to have significant responsibilities as a
regional power to ensure security and stability in the South Pacific. According to Thakur (2013),
Australia has enduring strategic interests in the South Pacific, and thus has a great influence over
the Pacific Islands. It has contributed to these island countries the maritime resources and has
also enhanced their security concerns. Also the Australian nation has made extensive efforts
along with the South Pacific Islands, to further develop their law and order, their border security
as well as their economic management capacity (Brown, 2012).
Australia strengthening relations with USA
The here has been two treaties that Australia has signed with the United States.
They include The Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treat (ANZUS) in 1951
and recently in 2014, the US-Australia Force Posture Agreement in 2014. These have paved the
way for greater defense and security cooperation for Australia.

3
THE NECESSITY OF THE ADF ESTABLISHING AND STRENGTHEING THE SECURITY OF
OUR NEIGHBOURS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFICThe United States Department of Defense as an executive branch of the federal
government is responsible for the national security. It is the largest employer in the world with
millions of active duty service members including soldiers, marines, and airmen (Savage, G, and
O’Connor, 2015).. Starting from the World War II, the United States defense and its foreign aid
had been of a great benefit for the other nations worldwide (Harold, 2013). United States made
sure that they gain enough political and economic benefits by extending its military aid to the
other developing nations (Hubbard, 2017). This would help the country to improve its diplomatic
relations with the other nations (Jennings , 2013). The foreign policies and the defense aid in the
part of United Stated towards all nations have benefitted them to a great extent and this is a
reason why Australian Government should think of improving their relations with United States.
It would help them in improving their diplomatic relation with the global power United States.
(Hubbard, 2017).
There are close relations of Australia and the United States at all levels of government.
Today, Australia and United States maintain and share a unique bilateral relationship. In 2018,
the Australian government decided to double its relationship with the United States. This
energetic engagement on the part of Australian Government is an effective strategy to maintain
diplomatic relations with the United States (Jennings, 2013). The US- Australian Treaty alliance
had been the base upon which Canberra’s defense strategy rests for decades. The balance
between the Australia’s relationship with both the United States and the China is the most
important strategic thought and an effective foreign policy (Kelton , 2016). Also the deterioration
of the United States and China relations would help Australian foreign policies to strengthen
with the US.