This week in Australian foreign affairs: statements on Afghanistan from Payne, Morrison, and Wong; new Australian Agriculture Visa; the fifth Philippines-Australia Ministerial Meeting; COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Kiribati; and more.

The Taliban surged through Afghanistan once the United States opted to cut and run. Twenty years of a pluralistic, republican political order, which for all its defects many Afghans continued to value, have been swept away.

The United States and its NATO allies have been defeated by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is a serious blow to the Western alliance and to President Joe Biden’s lofty ambitions of providing American leadership to the world’s remaining democracies.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has left powerful states scrambling to evacuate their citizens, the usual political blame-shifting, and distressing scenes at Kabul airport. Deeper reflection is needed on what the enduring lesson is.

From 1 September 2021, Singapore will no longer have a legal domestic ivory trade. While this is an important step forward for protecting wildlife, stronger regulations are needed for the flourishing online market.

Despite concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called an election on 20 September. The government’s response to the pandemic, political scandals, and social and economic policies are major issues.

Under Narendra Modi’s leadership, tensions between Hindu and Muslim Indians have swelled. Outside, however, India’s relations with Middle Eastern states have long been on the upswing, with the Gulf included in India’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

There are maybe three million ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.  Although that’s a minuscule 1.2 percent of the population it’s often claimed they control around 70 percent of the economy.

Also discussed in this episode of Australia in the World: Diplomacy in the time of COVID-19. This is Part I of Allan and Darren's conversation with Gary Quinlan AO.

America has a long history of diplomacy. Recounting the actors and events of US foreign policy, Robert B. Zoellick identifies five traditions that have emerged from America's encounters with the world.