EU‐Australia Relations at Fifty: Reassessing a Troubled Relationship

This article critically examines the Australia‐EU relationship over the past five decades or so. A narrow formulation of Australia's national interests has become transformed into a broader engagement, with an increasingly regionalised and multilateralised common agenda. The article argues that the relationship changed because of a number of factors. The first is Australia's changing relationship with the UK as interlocutor and market. The second is the eventual diminution of the pivotal role of a single policy, agriculture. The third is the transformation of the EU's international role, with impact on Australia. The fourth is the development of both traditional and non‐traditional security concerns that were increasingly shared by each side. The fifth and final factor is the common interest in the Asia Pacific region.