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Krissy Barrett was a young Australian federal police intelligence officer back in 2003, when years of ethnic tensions and thuggish anarchy pushed Solomon Islands to the brink.
After the country’s government collapsed and violent factions smashed the police, Australia stepped in to help.
The Howard government hastily stood up a regional assistance mission, with Barrett, the future AFP commissioner, deployed as part of the peacekeeping force. Originally expected to last for months, Australians were on the ground for nearly 15 years.
In a speech in the US this week, Barrett said the fraught period had shaped her leadership and outlook on the world.
“While the true north of the Pacific Island chiefs is the rhythm of the blue ocean, constant and comforting, we acknowledge the tides are changing,” she said, imploring decision-makers to adapt too.
“I cannot help defend and protect Australians and our sovereignty by only doing my job in Canberra, just like my fellow Pacific police chiefs cannot solely do it from Suva, Port Moresby, Apia or Majuro.”
The speech was timely, as Anthony Albanese and the foreign minister, Penny Wong, once again returned to Fiji and Solomon Islands, signing a new alliance and further reinforcing efforts to keep check on China’s moves to undercut Australia.
Back home on Wednesday, Albanese hosted the leaders of Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea in Brisbane, celebrating the binding ties of rugby league as a tool of diplomatic soft power.
Underlying the diplomatic push was just what Barrett had described: an understanding that safety at home will only come from safety in the region.
Beijing, the biggest loser from what might emerge as a landmark week in the Albanese government’s foreign policy, lashed out with a ballistic missile test, urgently reminding Australia just how important its position with Pacific countries is.
The new Solomons leader, Matthew Wale, described the test of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile, fired from a nuclear submarine, as “further evidence for the need” for a new regional security pact.
But with the pieces of a new regional framework increasingly falling into place for Labor, the long-term project to protect peace and stability must be further progressed by Australia, building on the strong foundations Albanese, Wong and the Pacific minister, Pat Conroy, have built.
The stakes could hardly be higher.
Even if some kind of major conflict involving China does not come to pass, Albanese is clear minded that Xi Jinping and the Chinese regime is interested in “increasing their influence at a minimum, and hegemony in the longer term”. In a piece for the Lowy Institute this week, Australia’s former ambassador to Beijing Graham Fletcher agreed, writing that “China plainly wants to win, in everything”, including displacing or eventually succeeding the US in global leadership.
Just as Australia’s main defence and security partner, the US, looks less and less reliable under Donald Trump, Australia’s biggest trading partner is emerging as a much superior military power, unencumbered by diplomatic niceties and long relied on norms. Similarly, India’s importance to Australia has grown significantly.
One of the federal government’s worst nightmares would be China establishing a permanent military base in the Pacific.
Such a circumstance makes the sometimes unglamorous work of Pacific diplomacy – including agreements signed with Tuvalu, Nauru and PNG, as well as the Nakamal agreement with Vanuatu and the ongoing negotiations with Solomon Islands and Tonga – all the more important. The deals require consultation on defence and security moves, and give Canberra early insight into decisions that could affect regional harmony. The opportunity for China to move in police or military assets is also restricted by such agreements.
Taken together, they are a long way from where Scott Morrison found himself ahead of the 2022 federal election, when Solomon Islands stunned Australia by signing a security pact with China.
On Friday, New Zealand signalled they could look to join the Ocean of Peace alliance with Fiji, potentially adding heft to the deal.
It says Australia and Fiji will “act to meet the common danger” in the event either country is attacked, and that both countries recognise that an armed action against either would be dangerous for Pacific peace and security.
Consultation provisions would see any security-related developments that might threaten sovereignty, peace or stability in either country discussed ahead of time, likely stopping any drift towards China as a security partner of choice for Fiji.
Wong said on Friday that, faced with much more geopolitical competition, and the largest militarisation seen since the second world war, much more cooperation with countries in the region was needed.
The week of foreign policy extended to Australia’s west later in the week, as Albanese hosted India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, in Melbourne. The push for stronger ties with India is based in mutual concern about China’s rise.
The two leaders signed a suite of deals, including moves for Australian uranium to be exported to India for use in nuclear energy.
Like during his most recent visit to Australia a few years ago, Modi’s presence prompted fawning treatment from the government, including bear hugs and stadium appearances in front of members of the India diaspora.
Absent was any real discussion of human rights challenges from Modi’s increasingly firm grip on Indian society, including the treatment of Muslims, and targeting and detention of human rights campaigners and journalists.
Modi does not answer questions from journalists, so jointly read statements with Albanese and a visit to the turf of the MCG was about as much scrutiny as anyone could muster.
But, as the Quad security grouping with the US and Japan appears to be losing steam due to Trump’s fight with Modi, bilateral engagement with Australia might be an important backstop.
A long way away from Labor’s diplomatic forward steps this week, Krissy Barrett told her colleagues in New York that “size or influence do not decide ambition”.
The work of Albanese and Wong demonstrates that Labor clearly agrees.
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