This episode focuses on summit season and the US-China rivalry on display. It recaps the ASEAN Summit, East Asia Summit and APEC meeting before looking ahead to this week’s G20 Summit.

In this final current events-related podcast for 2018, Allan and Darren discuss the recent round of regional summits, including the ASEAN Summit, the East Asia Summit and the APEC meetings. The mid-November week of summitry captures very well the essence of the current rivalry between the United States and China, and the challenges this poses for Australia and other states in the region.

Their discussion covers the significance of President Trump’s absence, contrasts the different approaches to leadership taken by the United States and China and looks into why APEC members were unable to agree on a joint communiqué.

The two also cover alleged “tantrum diplomacy” by the Chinese delegation at APEC, and also the joint announcement by the US, Australia and Papua New Guinea of an upgrade of the naval base on Manus Island.

The podcast then looks forward to the G20 meetings in the context of a recent speech by Australia’s G20 Sherpa David Gruen, and finishes with an update on the Khashoggi killing, with Donald Trump again refusing to accept the conclusions of his intelligence agencies.

Allan Gyngell AO FAIIA is National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and an Honorary Professor at the ANU’s College of Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Darren Lim is a Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University. 

Allan and Darren would like to thank the people who helped make this possible, in particular: AIIA interns Stephanie Rowell (research assistant) and Mani Bovell (audio engineer); Martyn Pearce and Maya Bhandari of the Crawford School for technical support; Rory Stenning for composing the theme music; and AIIA National Executive Director Melissa Conley Tyler for her hard work behind the scenes to help make this happen.