Australia's history, geography, strategic circumstances and economy combine in a distinctive way and make an active foreign and trade policy essential. Australia has global interests and will not withdraw from the global economy or limit its horizons exclusively to its immediate region. Australia's future depends largely on its capacity to sustain a foreign and trade policy of broad scope. For a trading nation such as Australia, the alternative to active participation in the global economy and the affairs of its region is irrelevance and decline. While the spread of Australia's interests is wide, each of these interests is not equally important and nor can they be pursued with equal resources.
Care is needed in setting priorities.
The Asia Pacific is the region of highest foreign and trade policy priority for the Government. The strategies canvassed in this paper embrace action at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. The Government's strategy for advancing Australia's security interests is based on a hard-headed assessment of the security of the Asia Pacific region. Each has a contribution to make to increasing Australia's standard of living through expanded trade and investment. None offers the only way ahead, and all three will be needed if Australia is to improve its trade performance.