America first, but not America only: Sinodinos says
Australia is being warned to avoid relying solely on its alliance with the United States as conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region escalate.
As Anthony Albanese returned home after his meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, former US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos said the federal government should strengthen its partnerships with other countries, arguing that global politics is increasingly transactional.
“We’re in a world where our main alliance partner is primarily America. We want to make sure it’s not just America,” Mr Sinodinos told AAP.
In a speech to the Sir John Monash Foundation in Sydney on Wednesday night, the senator-turned ambassador outlined the policy changes he believes are needed to strengthen Australia’s position in the world.
“Australia needs to consider not only how to strengthen its alliance with the United States, but also how to create other options in terms of its relationships with its allies and partners in the region,” he said.
In this context, we need to be as economically strong as possible.”
Mr Sinodinos suggested the government needed to do more to promote a “culture of innovation” so that inventions developed in Australia are commercialized here rather than sold overseas.
He said boosting onshore innovation could have economic and strategic benefits.
“Most of the technologies we talk about today are dual-use technologies,” he said.
“They can be both civilian and military in their applications.”
Mr Sinodinos said the government should consider ways to improve cooperation between the business and university sectors to encourage new developments.
The former ambassador said that although Labor had done some work, it needed to move faster to ensure it did not cede advantages to China and other countries.
“We really need to put the pedal to the metal,” he said.
“It’s a bit like a boiling frog, isn’t it? Things are getting worse… everything is going one way.”
Mr Sinodinos said the sense of urgency should also apply to the critical minerals deal between Australia and the US, under which both countries will pour at least $1 billion into extraction and processing projects over the next six months.
“It’s all in the app,” he said.
“We need to move this forward because the United States has so many options, so many countries… we’re talking about partnering on critical minerals.”
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