The Quad: How this new partnership can preserve peace for Japan and strengthen democracy in our region.
The assasination of the late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo was a truly devastating loss.
Shinzo’s humility and grace combined with his strength and insight to chart a clear course for those who believe in a world order that favours freedom, in a sea of great disruption and uncertainty.
His vision of a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ has been embraced by like minded nations and provides the clear marker for bilateral, regional and global efforts.
His innate grasp of politics, economics and security issues enabled him to web together a coherent and integrated agenda, that pushed forward what Michael Green referred to in his latest work, as Japan’s ‘Line of Advantage’.
But I would argue he did more than this, pushing forward the line of advantage for liberal market based democracies and economies more broadly in our region.
The strong alignment of Australia and Japan’s interest ensured that we have walked a very similar path.
It is therefore not surprising that we were both keen initiators and advocates for the elevation of the Quad to a leader level dialogue. I want to especially acknowledge the great contribution of Prime Ministers Abe, Suga and most recently Kishida to this end.
Australia, India, Japan and the United States are not the only liberal democracies in our region. Nor are we the only liberal democracies who have significant interests in our region. And we do not always have the same lens on our region.
However we do share in the vision of sovereign independent nations being able to engage, free of coercion and hegemonic influences, to transparently pursue their legitimate state interests, consistent with the international rules based order, to improve the quality of life for
all our peoples.
By sharing our unique perspectives on the region, consistent with our shared values, we gain a greater understanding of the broader picture and the responses we can make usefully together and individually. Read full speech….WSD-IDU-JFIR Tokyo
