PRAGUE – The GLOBSEC Forum, a major security conference now in its 20th year has just wrapped up its three-day agenda of events. Started as a university conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, the forum has grown into the major annual event of Central and Eastern Europe. It now hosts annually thousands of delegates and hundreds of speakers from the media, policy, academic, political, and business worlds.
Naturally centred on European security, the forum has in recent years taken greater interest in the Indo-Pacific.
Australian Institute of International Affairs Chief Executive Officer Dr Bryce Wakefield spoke at his third appearance in a row at the annual forum. He had previously also appeared at GLOBSEC events in 2023.
“It was a pleasure to attend the GLOBSEC Forum and to speak on how security structures in the Indo-Pacific are set up vis-a-vis those in Europe,” said Wakefield.
“With the future of NATO dominating discussion, some here often forget that we in the Indo-Pacific have created security structures in our region look very different to those set up here.”
“We’re often told that the EU and Indo-Pacific countries should work together because they are so like-minded. But any cooperation on security between NATO or the EU one the one hand and the various countries of the Indo-Pacific on the other needs to understand that there are few ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches to our region,” he said.
Commenting on the recent proposal of European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen for a strategic partnership between Australia and the EU, Wakefield noted that the proposal was a positive development, but that any such arrangement should identify clear areas of engagement and serve a practical purpose.
Australia and others in the region have several arrangements labelled “strategic partnerships” many of which have not led to much. According to Wakefield, these should not distract from bi- and mini-lateral arrangements that Australia has set up to produce specific practical effects.
“We should not just have partnership for partnership’s sake,” he said.
Video of the GLOBSEC panel on alliances in Europe and the Indo-Pacific is available here.
