Here’s why Australia-Canada ties matter more than ever
As published by The Australian Financial Review
During a time of deep disruption and geopolitical upheaval, it’s important for like-minded countries to work together. Australia and Canada share longstanding ties that make them natural allies in a rapidly changing world.
Despite sitting on opposite ends of the Pacific Ocean our two countries have much in common. We are both highly urbanised, services-driven, and dependent on international trade as a source of growth and continued economic prosperity. Our economies have traditionally relied heavily on agricultural and natural resource exports, our strong and stable democracies are based on the Westminster system of government, and we share many international ties.
Our circumstances have naturally led to a strong bilateral relationship, including significant and long-standing private sector connections.
It’s not surprising, then, that roughly every two years, a large group of business leaders and senior policymakers gather for the Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum to discuss our comprehensive relationship and how it can be further strengthened.
This year’s forum taking place in Sydney next week is fittingly focused on the theme “trusted partners: navigating the future together.”
Canada and Australia are prosperous nations and have benefitted in recent decades from relative security, regional stability and access to global markets.
However, the environment that led to our success is at risk. As middle powers, we can have a meaningful impact when we work together.
There are many ways we can advance the Australia-Canada relationship.
- Security – Canadians and Australians have fought side by side in major wars and our nations have remained close security partners through the critical Five Eyes alliance. As the world becomes more dangerous, our countries would benefit from an even closer security partnership. Together, we can champion greater collaboration between Five Eyes partners and promote cooperation with other likeminded partners such as Japan and Korea.
- Energy and resources – Canada and Australia are blessed with energy and natural resources and are among few countries to produce more food than we consume. Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, many partners around the world have faced uncertainty in securing energy, food and other critical inputs. While we are often competitors for market share, we should consider how we can work together to leverage our natural resources to support a more stable and secure global economy. Together, we have much of what the world needs, including many critical minerals.
- Global trade – We are both trading nations. Millions of workers in both countries rely on access to global markets for their livelihoods. It is in our interests to support rules-based trade. Even through geopolitical instability, we can uphold important and growing frameworks such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and work together in other settings to safeguard and establish fair economic rules.
- Lessons learned – Given our extensive similarities there is so much we can learn from each other. We need to improve the information exchange between our countries as we work toward common goals, including building Indigenous economic capacity, developing infrastructure, managing immigration and promoting innovation. Business, government and civil society should find more ways to share best practices and solve problems together.
We need to respond to this period of great uncertainty by building an even more robust trusted partnership. This will benefit our workers and our economies and help offer stability in a changing world.
