Read AIIA China Matters Fellow Yun Jiang’s new report: “Winning hearts and minds: the PRC’s efforts to attract scientific talent.”
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On 29 November, AIIA National President Designate Dr Heather Smith PSM FAIIA gave the Sir James Plimsoll Lecture to AIIA Tasmania at the University of Tasmania and was awarded her AIIA Fellowship. You can now read the speech online.
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Warwick Smith AO FAIIA, an eminent member of the Australian business community, was awarded an AIIA Fellowship this year. Read his 21 November acceptance speech, given as the AIIA Tasmania Government House Lecture: “Foreign Policy within a Trading Nation, the Pacific, Asia and the World – the danger of mediocrity” here.
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Thanks to all who made the #AIIA2022 national conference a success! We’ll be publishing speeches, photos and videos on the conference website as they become available.
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Australian Outlook

Royal Australian Navy officer Lieutenant Commander Makaila Lasalo (right) talks with Nomuka Island residents during Operation Tonga Assist 2022. Australian Defence Force personnel are deployed on Operation Tonga Assist 2022 as part of the Australian Government support to the Government of Tonga following the eruption of Tonga's Hunga Tonga-Hunga Walapai underwater volcano on 15 January 2022 and subsequent tsunami. Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Canberra arrived in the Tongan capital of Nuku'alofa on 01 March to deliver humanitarian and disaster relief stores and transfer command of the Australian Defence Force joint task group from HMAS Adelaide. Air support to Operation Tonga Assist 2022 has included air reconnaissance to assess damage using Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, while more than 119 tonnes of humanitarian and disaster relief stores have been delivered using C-17A Globemaster Ill and C-130J Hercules transport aircraft. Source: Australian Department of Defence https://bit.ly/3jg5lWx

After the Waves: One Year on From the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Eruption

27 January 2023

This month marks one year since the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and the subsequent tsunami that devastated Tonga. Australia, Tonga, and other partners have worked long and hard over the past year to restore Tonga’s agriculture, infrastructure, tourism, and the livelihoods of its people.

The Prime Minister of Nepal, Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, at Hyderabad House, in New Delhi on September 16, 2016. Source: MEAphotogallery https://bit.ly/3Hzr7Ok

Post-COVID-19 Economic Conditions in Nepal and Political Instability

By Dr Bikram Timilsina

27 January 2023

Although politicians claimed political stability was the driving force behind the new Constitution in 2015, Nepal has witnessed six changes of government in the last seven years. Economic recovery, from both the devasting 2015 earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic, will be a long process.

The Presidential Palace of Vietnam. Source: Jorge Láscar/http://bit.ly/3R5Zi3v.

Vietnam: The Advantages of a Flexible Foreign Policy

By Richard Broinowski AO

27 January 2023

Australian foreign policy could takes some cues from Vietnam. A flexible diplomacy with the ability shift alignments in the interests of national security is what Australia needs.

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