Australia has enjoyed a big increase in its diplomatic influence in Asia over the past year, according to the latest ratings of power across the region.
The Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index, published on Monday, also shows Australia’s standing has emerged unscathed from pandemic-era disruptions, unlike the region’s big players the US and China and many other countries.
The Sydney-based thinktank ranks 26 countries and territories in terms of their power and influence in Asia. It is calculated from scores in 133 categories covering military capability, economic capability and diplomatic and cultural influence.
The US was ranked in first place overall and “widened its lead slightly over China for a second year running despite a continuing downward trend for its comprehensive power score, which has never replicated its peak of 2018”.
China, still in second place, registered “the largest decline in comprehensive power” in the 2023 Asia Power Index as it was only starting to emerge from “tough zero-Covid policies that sharply curtailed its global and regional connectivity”.
But the report noted China was steadily improving its military and was prepared to deploy those capabilities more assertively. While China’s military is still not as powerful as the US military, it has cut the American lead on this measure from 27 points in 2018 to 23 points in 2022.
Australia is ranked sixth overall in the power index, behind Japan (third), India (fourth) and Russia (fifth).
Australia saw its greatest improvement over the past year in the diplomatic influence measure, which aims to track the “extent and standing of a state’s foreign relations”.
The report, by the Asia Power Index project leader, Susannah Patton, and fellow analysts, said the improvement “reflects greater confidence by experts surveyed in the ability of the new Albanese Labor government to advance Australia’s interests, as compared to the previous Morrison Coalition government”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and senior ministers have engaged in a busy schedule of overseas travel since the election last May, including to Pacific island countries and south-east Asia.
Within the diplomatic influence category, the Lowy Institute tracks a country’s network of embassies, visits by foreign ministers and leaders, power in multilateral bodies such as the United Nations, and soft-power tools such as vaccine donations.
It has also polled dozens of analysts in a cross-section of countries on how effective political leaders are in advancing their diplomatic interests in Asia and the world.
The report said the long-term effects of the pandemic continued to hold back most countries, despite the easing of lockdowns and border closures.
But Australia managed to avoid the impact felt by other top 10 countries, which had lost more than three points each on average compared with their pre-pandemic standing.
“Australia was the least affected middle power overall by the pandemic,” the report said.
“Alone among regional advanced economies, and despite a drop in regional influence during nearly two years of strict border closures, the country’s comprehensive power is now approximately back to its pre-pandemic level.”
Based on the Lowy Institute’s ratings, Australia’s overall power remains ahead of South Korea (seventh) and Singapore (eighth).
Indonesia (ninth) was “among the region’s most diplomatically active players”, the report said.
