We, the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia, gathered here in Melbourne on 6 March 2024 on the occasion of the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN-Australia Dialogue Relations.
We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that is substantive, meaningful and mutually beneficial, based on friendship, mutual trust, shared interests and a positive vision for our region’s future.
ASEAN and Australia will build on our strong history of cooperation and partnership over the last 50 years. Strong people-to-people ties will remain a foundation of our partnership. We will continue to reinforce the economic architecture. This architecture has transformed our region, elevated the living standards of our peoples and continues to support our prosperity. We will work to enhance regional connectivity towards a sustainable future, and seek to accelerate human resource development to be more competitive, agile and resilient. Together we will tackle common global challenges, including climate change and biodiversity loss, marine plastic debris, natural disasters, food and energy security, sustainable water resources management, poverty, pandemics, transnational crimes, and sustainable development, by sharing inclusive and equitable solutions to assure the well-being and resilience of our communities.
To ensure continued sustainable growth and prosperity, we will work together to promote an open, inclusive and transparent rules-based regional architecture in the Indo-Pacific region, in which ASEAN is central, and where the objectives and principles of the Charter of the United Nations (UN), ASEAN Charter, Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC) and ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) are respected and upheld. We want a region where sovereignty and territorial integrity is respected. We strive for a region where differences are managed through respectful dialogue, not the threat or use of force. We seek a region where disputes are settled peacefully in accordance with the universally recognised principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
We will continue to work together to contribute to the maintenance of peace and stability, as well as to enhance cooperation for sustainable development and prosperity in the region, particularly in support of the ASEAN community-building and integration process. We will continue to promote a rules-based regional architecture that upholds international law, with ASEAN at the centre, to maintain respectful, stable and peaceful relations between states. We will promote strategic trust and ensure transparent, predictable and responsible behaviour. We will foster closer and more productive cooperation and engagements through ASEAN-led mechanisms and other relevant regional and multilateral institutions. We will work together to promote open communication and dialogue within ASEAN-led mechanisms, to enhance mutual understanding, reduce the risks of miscalculation, and prevent conflict. We will continue to emphasise and reinforce ASEAN’s integral role as the region’s leading convener for strategic dialogue.
As we look to the next 50 years, we look forward to enhancing our partnership, which has significantly contributed to the peace, security, stability and prosperity of our region. We are excited by the opportunities ahead for our region and look forward to embracing these together.
Adopted in Melbourne, Australia on the Sixth Day of March of the Year Two Thousand and Twenty-Four at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of ASEAN-Australia Dialogue Relations.
