Africa has not been a prominent or permanent fixture on Australia’s foreign or security policy agenda. Canberra has tended to view the African continent through the prism of multilateral institutions—mainly the Commonwealth and the United Nations—and often then only in the context of either conflict or humanitarian crises. 

Zimbabwe figures little in analyses of strategic issues in Africa because it has been a rogue actor for a decade. This is an unfortunate oversight. Refugees from the Robert Mugabe regime continue to cause problems for Zimbabwe’s neighbours, especially South Africa and Botswana. The country has taken up much of the time of the main regional organisation, the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). And its continued deterioration, not least with health issues surrounding the spread of HIV/AIDS and cholera, could continue to bring the region down.

Australia did not colonise an African country, and has not benefited from postcolonial trade links such as the Europeans have. Australians did participate in the Boer War, and were inspired in the Scouts by Baden Powell’s siege of Mafikeng.

Australian mining companies and associated industries have been gradually increasing investments in the continent over the last fifteen years, despite the prevalence of political instability and ongoing civil wars across Africa. In tandem with this extraction industry Australia has welcomed thousands of refugees from Africa through the humanitarian program.

Australia and Australians are engaged with Africa, in a number of areas; diplomatic, security, humanitarian, development and increasingly, private sector investment. So Africa does matter to Australia. But, if, as the government has indicated, we are to make more of our engagement with Africa then the real questions are how much, how do we achieve it and at what cost?

Two Royal Australian Navy warships recently frustrated a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia. Pirates attacked a merchant ship and attempted a boarding, and also approached another freighter. The Australian ships, on a global circumnavigation, provided security to the merchant vessel and stabilised the situation.

Australian interests in Africa tend to be diplomatic and economic rather than strategic.  But we can weigh those diplomatic interests—crudely—by looking at the limited number of missions (high commissions, embassies and consulates) that Australia has in Africa.  And we can weigh the economic interests by examining DFAT’s trade figures, which suggest that Africa remains comparatively marginal in the Australian economic portfolio; there are no African states amongst our top ten trade partners, for example.  

The focus of UN peacekeeping operations is currently on the African continent with seven ongoing major UN-mandated missions of various types, in various phases, and with varying degrees of success. These are difficult missions, mostly inadequately resourced by the international community. The close working relationship that has developed between the United Nations and the African Union to enhance peacekeeping has seen the continent become the location where international thinking on civil-military collaboration and its practice intersect.

The Rudd government’s initiative to engage more closely with Africa, and to assist the African Union in practical, but modest, ways, will benefit all parties: the African Union, the United Nations and Australia.

Judging from the recent visits to Africa by Foreign Minister Smith, Defence Minister Fitzgibbon and the Governor-General Quentin Bryce, it appears Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government is interested in improving relations with African countries. The government has made it clear that its increased attention to Africa is primarily aimed at advancing its national interests, which include an ambition to win a seat on the UN Security Council.

But in pursuing its national interests, is there a way in which the Australian Government can at the same time help Africa improve its security in general or deal with specific security concerns, such as terrorism?

In his book on Australia’s Foreign Relations, the former Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans wrote in 1995 that ‘Australia’s relations with Africa have tended to develop on a largely ad hoc basis, often as a consequence of policies on other issues, such as human rights, the Commonwealth and, especially, apartheid’.

In seeking to end the ad hoc approach to and relatively low ranking of African issues in Australia’s foreign policy priorities, the Rudd government faces a number of challenges. Many of those challenges have been captured in the series of exchanges presented in this forum.