ADJUSTING TO THE ASEAN WAY - 30 YEARS OF AUSTRALIA RELATIONS WITH ASEAN

In the thirty years since the creation of ASEAN, the relations between Southeast Asia and Australia have changed dramatically. Nowhere is th is more evident than in the economic sphere. The sustained rapid econo mic growth of most ASEAN countries in the following three decades has ensured that Australia's relative economic importance to the region as a market, a source of investment or a source of development assistanc e-has declined significantly. In contrast, the ASEAN share of Australi a's total exports has more than doubled in the past thirty years. ASEA N's new importance to Australia stems not only from the region's econo mic growth but also from Canberra's efforts to reorient Australian for eign, defence and trade policies towards the Asia-Pacific region in ge neral and East Asia in particular. The advent of the Hawke Labor gover nment heralded a new era of relations between Australia and ASEAN that was characterized by a substantial broadening of the agenda for coope ration, and a new coincidence of interests, for example, in the promot ion of global trade liberalization-but also new sources of tension as both ASEAN and Australia pursued more activist foreign policies. By pl acing emphasis on 'open regionalism' and 'coordinated unilateralism' a s the central principles for APEC, the Australian government has gener ally supported ASEAN's concensual, gradualist approach to economic coo peration. If Australian governments have moved towards adopting the AS EAN way in their diplomacy with their Southeast Asian neighbours, ASEA N states at times have shown little reciprocity or, indeed, public und erstanding of the constraints under which Australian governments opera te in, for instance, their relations with the Australian media.