{"id":600344,"date":"2026-04-11T16:10:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600344\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T16:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T16:10:22","slug":"anthony-albanese-deepens-ties-to-south-east-asia-rather-than-focusing-on-us-to-help-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/600344\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese deepens ties to South-East Asia rather than focusing on US to help"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul<\/p>\n

Updated April 11, 2026 \u2014 10:00pm,first published 7:30pm<\/p>\n

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Anthony Albanese has long admired the success story that is Singapore, the city-state that transformed from an impoverished island into one of the wealthiest societies on earth in a single generation.<\/p>\n

The driving force behind Singapore\u2019s rise was Lee Kuan Yew. The nation\u2019s founding father was known as the \u201csage of Singapore\u201d for his forthright views on world affairs sought out by American and Chinese presidents alike.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyAnthony Albanese with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

Albanese has spoken about his appreciation for Singapore\u2019s feats since visiting in 2017 as part of a fellowship program named after Lee. Preoccupied with turning Labor into the natural party of government, Albanese might be a bit jealous of the type of one-party dominance enjoyed by Lee\u2019s successors in what analysts have described as a benevolent autocracy.<\/p>\n

Lee got lots right on economic development. But, as Albanese\u2019s fuel diplomacy blitz in Asia has proved<\/a>, the Singaporean\u2019s predictions on the battle for hegemony between the US and China are being tested.<\/p>\n

In 2011, four years before his death, Lee said that \u201cAmerica will remain the sole superpower\u201d for decades because of its ingenuity and resilience. He warned, though, that America\u2019s much-vaunted \u201cpivot\u201d to Asia would fail if the US treated foreign relations like a movie, hitting pause on Asia when its focus was elsewhere and pressing play at other times. \u201cIt cannot come and go,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

The US, still Australia\u2019s top security and cultural partner, has rarely felt so distant. And with Donald Trump punishing allies and failing to consult them on a major war in the Middle East, the pivot to Asia seems like a faint memory.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Albanese held a phone call with Chinese Premier Li Qiang as Australia lobbies Asian neighbours to keep supplying oil to mask its paltry fuel reserves.<\/p>\n

\"AnthonyAnthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing last year.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n

Albanese has not spoken to Trump about de-escalation. He has relied instead on public statements urging the US to wind up the war, the overall aim of which he supported due to Iran\u2019s malign influence and antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was striking that Albanese spoke to Premier Li Qiang,\u201d said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow and China watcher at the Lowy Institute. \u201cI can\u2019t remember a time when the US was involved in a war, and the Australian prime minister didn\u2019t call Washington but instead called Beijing. That\u2019s the world we are living in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Australian<\/a><\/p>\n

Few would have predicted the extent to which the US might itself encourage such a move when Paul Keating famously said Australia must find its security in Asia rather than from it. Deepening ties in the Indo-Pacific has been a feature of Albanese\u2019s term. Labor has repeatedly, and controversially, declined to send ships to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

After weeks of argument from his political opponents saying that he had been slow to respond to the oil shock<\/a>, Albanese charged into Asia this week desperate to secure more fuel should Trump\u2019s war drag on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about cashing in on the investment that we\u2019ve made in relationships, to put it simply,\u201d Albanese told this masthead when asked about using Australia\u2019s position as a major gas exporter to secure oil.<\/p>\n

In Singapore, which provides Australia with more than half its petrol, Albanese announced a non-binding deal with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong<\/a> that talked up \u201cmaximum effort\u201d to continue trading.<\/p>\n

Australian officials have interpreted this as effectively a confirmation that, should the refining superpower need to wind down exports in coming months, Australia will be given preference.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The opposition questioned if the deal had any tangible effect, suggesting it was a PR move more than anything as the prime minister tries to project urgency and avoid the brutal judgments he received during his indecisive response<\/a> to the Bondi massacre.<\/p>\n

Albanese met Singapore\u2019s foreign minister in 2017 through the Lee fellowship and has met Wong several times. The government has focused on tighter ties in Asia for years. On Friday, Albanese said that it was valuable to be able to pick up the phone to lock in an unscheduled meeting with Wong, who is in demand among world leaders due to Singapore\u2019s fuel exports.<\/p>\n

McGregor, the China expert, said the Singapore deal made sense because the nations shared a solid relationship, but it was \u201cnot a magic bullet\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t produce oil; they import and refine it, so they will be sweating on supplies too,\u201d McGregor said, adding that more and more fuel would be coming from the US. \u201cChina will be more of a benchmark \u2013 whether they go out of their way to honour contracts with Australian importers of everything from aviation fuel to fertiliser, and let us hang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, Albanese has tried to use Australia\u2019s improved relationship with China to his benefit. Reuters has reported that China has banned exports of refined fuels. But sources familiar with Albanese\u2019s talks with China said it was clear that the ban, in typically opaque Chinese style, was not hard and fast, and that Australia was still receiving at least some tankers.<\/p>\n

Critics, including some national security hardheads within Labor, believe Albanese is soft on China, but the prime minister would argue that his approach gets economic results and avoids China\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n

Next week, Albanese is expected to travel to Malaysia and Brunei, also key oil exporters. Brunei is a big supplier of fertiliser, too, whose elevated prices are already hurting Australian farmers.<\/p>\n

Upending his schedule at such an important moment domestically, with a key budget just weeks away, underlines Albanese\u2019s fears about political damage from an inflation shock that has put a spotlight on Labor\u2019s response to the supply chain problems during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Initially flat-footed, Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen have turned into action men. Bowen has also softened his aggressive tone in press conferences, which was causing frustration among Labor MPs who wanted the government to project calm.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Lawrence<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese, said people familiar with his thinking, has been slightly surprised that the fuel supply picture has not turned ugly. After releasing fuel stockpiles and announcing $2 billion to help companies buy expensive cargoes, the government has been able to steadily push out the date at which Australia\u2019s fuel stocks are in doubt. The government\u2019s latest estimate is \u201cseveral weeks\u201d into May. The public debate about rationing has simmered down, at least for now.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the government will launch an advertising campaign encouraging Australians to conserve fuel, as part of an awareness pitch for the National Fuel Security Plan unveiled last month.<\/p>\n

Advertisements on television, online and on billboards will urge Australians use their car less, take public transport, reduce the weight in their car when driving and remove modifications that may add drag to their vehicle.<\/p>\n

The nation is currently on level two of the four-level plan, with current guidance urging motorists to \u201conly buy the fuel you need\u201d and encouraging voluntary actions to reduce fuel consumption.<\/p>\n

The announcement came hours after Energy Minister Chris Bowen provided updates on Australia\u2019s liquid fuel reserves.<\/p>\n

Diesel stocks had increased to 31 days of supply, up two days since last week. Petrol supplies were down one day to 38 days of supply, jet fuel was down two to 28 days of supply.<\/p>\n

There were 57 tankers of fuel, carrying 4.1 billion litres, bound for Australia, providing a further four weeks of domestic supply. Around 2.2 per cent of the nation\u2019s service stations are currently out of supply.<\/p>\n

Times of conflict tend to dull the message of opposition parties, which struggle to be heard when voters are worried about prices, supply shocks and what the government is doing to fix the problems.<\/p>\n

Another Labor source, speaking anonymously to detail internal deliberations, said the war had taken attention away from a tricky debate about tax reform and record government spending<\/a> ahead of next month\u2019s budget, allowing ministers to prepare the fiscal document without being asked about leaks and speculation.<\/p>\n

Budget watchers and the opposition will be waiting to see if Albanese succumbs to pressure to provide relief to households, as the government did when it announced a halving of the fuel excise last month. His cabinet felt the marginal inflationary effect was outweighed by the need to use one of the few levers at its disposal to limit petrol price spikes and win voters\u2019 trust.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor rebuked Albanese for his April Fool\u2019s Day nationally televised address, which did not include any new information and was arguably contradictory. Albanese\u2019s private view is that the message was a success that allowed him to display the government\u2019s methodical approach to a large audience at a time when digital media has made it much harder to reach many people at once.<\/p>\n

Despite Taylor\u2019s criticisms, Albanese is not alone in appreciating the shifting currents.<\/p>\n

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\"PaulPaul Sakkal<\/a> is Chief Political Correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and won a Walkley award and the 2025 Press Gallery Journalist of the Year. Contact him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 11, 2026 \u2014 10:00pm,first published 7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-600344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}