Yet despite the imperative for full global coverage, INTERPOL’s exclusion of Taiwan creates a critical blind spot in the Indo-Pacific’s law enforcement architecture. Taiwan serves as a major logistics hub linking Southeast and Northeast Asia, with its financial system processing billions in cross-border transactions, and its cyber infrastructure connecting critical technology supply chains. While Taiwan operates one of the region’s most capable police forces, consistently ranking among the world’s five safest countries, it remains locked out of INTERPOL’s I-24/7 intelligence database and operational frameworks. This gap is precisely what sophisticated criminal networks are designed to exploit.

The case of Lisa Lines, an Australian who fled to Taiwan in 2017 after allegedly arranging a violent attack on her ex-husband, illustrates how Taiwan’s exclusion from INTERPOL helps criminals. INTERPOL issued a red notice—an international request to law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition. Yet if Taiwan was affiliated with INTERPOL, Lines would have been apprehended more quickly and directly. An uncomplicated example of how exclusion creates operational delays that benefit fugitives.

These gaps are avoidable because Taiwan brings proven capabilities that address regional security gaps. Its cybercrime units have developed world-class expertise in cryptocurrency tracing and recovering stolen digital assets, critical as East Asian fraud factories extracted $2 billion from Australian victims in 2024 alone. With Taiwan’s globally respected capabilities in combating cybercrime, its stellar record in tracing and recovering stolen funds, and its long experience in the fight against human trafficking and child exploitation, Taiwan is clearly a natural partner for INTERPOL.

As Dr John Coyne of ASPI’s National Security Program notes in his recent article, Taiwan has made significant contributions to dismantling transnational money laundering schemes and trafficking networks. He points out that INTERPOL, a non-political organisation created to “ensure no jurisdiction becomes a safe haven for criminals, is knowingly creating blind spots in its own network”.

Taiwan’s exclusion signals to criminal networks that political considerations create exploitable gaps in international security frameworks. Despite INTERPOL’s constitutional commitment to promoting the widest possible mutual assistance between all police authorities, and its professed neutrality, the organisation has, as Dr Coyne puts it, “been bent by geopolitics” to exclude an important, willing, and highly capable partner. INTERPOL’s own constitution explicitly prohibits involvement in “political, military, religious or racial matters”. Including Taiwan as an observer would be fully consistent with that principle, strengthening the organisation’s foundational neutrality.

There is, however, a practical (and apolitical) pathway forward. Granting observer status to Taiwan would enable operational cooperation without prejudicing political positions. This would provide Taiwan access to INTERPOL databases, enable participation in training programs and working groups, and help close intelligence gaps that currently undermine the global fight against cross-border crime.

As Taiwan’s Chief Representative in Australia, I call upon all nations to support Taiwan’s inclusion in the upcoming INTERPOL General Assembly as an observer. Taiwan remains steadfast in its commitment to good global citizenship, and INTERPOL participation would allow us to further contribute to global peace, safety and stability.

Criminals respect no borders and recognise no politics. If it truly ‘takes a network to defeat a network’, then keeping Taiwan outside INTERPOL deprives the international community of a capable partner it urgently needs.

Douglas Hsu is the Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia.

Australian Outlook occasionally publishes pieces by figures representing government or other bodies. As with all pieces published by Outlook, these are edited and checked for facts. They do not, however, represent the view of Outlook or the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

This article is published under Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.

We can all see our world is becoming less certain and less stable. More people are displaced. More people are hungry. There is more conflict – in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. 

Australia will always make our contribution, as part of multilateral efforts to protect civilians and uphold international law – because living in peace shouldn’t be contingent on where you were born. 

Having said that, our overriding responsibility as a middle power of the Indo-Pacific is to support peace, stability and prosperity in this region. 

The Indo-Pacific is where the world’s future is most being shaped. 

It is where we have the most on the line. 

It is where we can have the most effect. 

From our first day in office, when the Prime Minister and I flew to Japan to meet with the Quad, from my first trip to the Pacific Islands Forum and the Prime Minister’s first bilateral visit to Indonesia, the region has been our focus. 

After what some might call a mixed decade, we had a pretty big job to do. 

We needed to reassure the region of our commitment – our intent.  
 
In my first year as Foreign Minister, I travelled to every Pacific Islands Forum member and all the countries of ASEAN, other than Myanmar. 

The Prime Minister has always said that we are not here to occupy the space. 

That goes for our foreign policy. That goes for Australia in our region. 

We don’t just live here. 

We aren’t just residents. 

We are architects. 

And for the past three and a half years we have been building Australia’s future in our region. 

We build understanding, from what Anthony Albanese called the foundation of a relationship of equals. 

We build relationships. We build the inclusive infrastructure and economic opportunities to transform lives, foster stability and grow prosperity. 

We build our shared regional capacity to defend and secure our sovereignty. 

Every relationship Australia has in this region has been strengthened under our Government. 

Every one. 

And it pays to look at a map to picture the architecture I am about to describe. 

Because we have agreed groundbreaking treaties with four countries, upgraded or enhanced partnerships with six and made progress on agreements with another four. 

We have concluded negotiations on our new treaty with Indonesia. 
 
We have the Pukpuk Treaty with Papua New Guinea, transforming our nearest neighbour to our newest ally. 

We have the Nauru-Australia Treaty and the landmark Falepili Union with Tuvalu. 

We have progress towards new agreements with Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu. 

We have stabilised relations with China, without compromising on our interests. 

And we have upgraded our relationships with Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Brunei, enhanced our relationship with Singapore and agreed to strengthen our arrangements with India. 

None of this was thinkable in 2021. 

Yet the Albanese Government has actively pursued landmark agreements that come together to safeguard the region that we want. 

At every step, working in partnership with the region, and through ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum, which underpin our collective security and prosperity. 

We know we are made stronger by what we do together. 

Now, let me be clear. I said that we have advanced every relationship we have in our region. 

But that doesn’t mean that our strategic environment is getting any easier. 

The change in the regional landscape is permanent. 

The disruption – the contest– is permanent. 

China will continue trying to reshape the region according to its own interests. 

Russia, Iran and North Korea will continue to sabotage and destabilise. 

With so much activity and contest, things may not go Australia’s way every time. 

But we will keep pressing our national interest in the contest every day. 

We do that bilaterally, including with our upgraded ties around the region, but also through regionalism. 

Regionalism is one of the most effective ways for smaller and medium countries to counter power asymmetries. 

We see this every day in the power and weight that ASEAN and the PIF carry when they speak with one voice. 

Both have the capacity to build norms and set expectations – for nations large and small. 

This architecture of groundbreaking agreements secures Australia in our region. 

And they are premised on Australia’s ability to meet nations where they are at, drawing on all elements of our national power. 

You see this in South and Southeast Asia, where we know that there is a need for more investment, goods and services to boost economic development and support the transition to clean energy. 

It’s in Australia’s economic and strategic interests to respond to these priorities. 

And it offers the assurance that comes with knowing that their success is our success; to create the shared value that fosters peace and stability. 

This is why we have supported $1.2 billion in new Australian investment through our Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. 

And it is why we launched an A New Economic Roadmap for India, with a new Trade and Investment Accelerator Fund to help unlock new commercial opportunities, while continuing to negotiate an upgraded economic agreement. 

Our new $2 billion Southeast Asia Infrastructure Financing Facility is kickstarting Australian investments, including to create immediate exposure for 15 Australian super funds and supporting key projects in renewable energy, telecommunications and infrastructure. 

It is a sign of early success that one in four transactions supported by Export Finance Australia are now in Southeast Asia. 

And beyond trade and investment, we are also drawing on the expertise of CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and other Australian institutions to support energy system planning, resilient transport infrastructure and the clean energy transition in the region. 

We are bringing together Timor-Leste, the Northern Territory Government and indigenous land holders to help Timor improve access to power in remote communities. 

And in similar ways in the Pacific, we are listening, consulting and responding to Pacific priorities in the Pacific way – Australia is intent on being a good neighbour and one that deals with partners with respect. 

I can’t emphasise enough how important this has been in the Pacific – where the previous government’s disregard of climate science and disrespect for the Pacific family is still raised with me today. 

The Albanese Government has invested in rebuilding relationships and restoring trust among the Pacific family – so that we can again be a partner of choice. 

Such as through the Cyber RAPID response program, which has helped restore critical services in the wake of massive cyber-attacks, or through DFAT and the ADF humanitarian operations responding to natural disasters. 

Or the way we are addressing food insecurity, with ACIAR enabling Australia to share our ability to grow food in changing climates and take our leadership in agricultural innovation global. 

Being a part of the solution on climate change is also central to our credibility in the Pacific – through our strong domestic commitments, rejoining the Green Climate Fund and investing in the Pacific Resilience Facility. 

And the driver for Australia seeking to host COP with the Pacific family was always to bring the world’s attention to the impacts of climate change in our region and elevate Pacific voices for global action on climate. 

All our Pacific engagement prioritises Pacific leadership. 

That is how we have backed the Pacific Policing Initiative and established the Pacific Response Group, complementing other arrangements like Australia’s Status of Forces Agreement with Fiji and enhanced maritime security cooperation. 

Australia is committed to remaining a reliable partner to the Pacific and our region, despite the global reduction in development assistance. 

The full impact of dramatic aid reductions around the world is only just starting to be felt. 

Australia is responding to this challenge by reprioritising our development investments to bolster support to our region. 

We now dedicate 75 cents of every Australian development dollar to the Indo-Pacific. 

We are prioritising targeted, high-impact investments that build resilience and back local solutions, making the region more secure and stable. 

We also prioritise those in the most need – such as our role as a leading contributor to humanitarian crises and displaced Rohingyas in Myanmar and Bangladesh. 

This week I will travel to India, one of our most consequential partners in building our collective security and prosperity. I am told this will be my 26th meeting with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar. 

Australia has sought to redefine our relationships with our region. Listening, not imposing. Consulting, not controlling. 

And through identifying shared challenges, designing solutions together, and using all of our arms of national power, we have found ways to build common ground. 

Senator the Hon Penny Wong is the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. This is an excerpt of her speech to the 17 November 2025 AIIA Gala Dinner. Full versions of conference speeches, including the minister’s speech, are available here.

Australian Outlook occasionally publishes pieces by figures representing government or other bodies. As with all pieces published by Outlook, these are edited and checked for facts. They do not, however, represent the view of Outlook or the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

This article is published under Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.

The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which kicked off this week in New York, will see an extension of China’s campaign to exclude Taiwan on the world stage by way of their misrepresentation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758.

The People’s Republic of China has a long history of falsely arguing that this resolution, which also determined Taiwan’s status and thus prevents Taiwan’s participation in the UN.

To be clear, the resolution did not mention Taiwan at all, nor did it state that Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). And it did not grant the PRC the right to represent Taiwan in the UN system. Resolution 2758 simply addresses China’s representation in the United Nations, end of story.

China’s assertion of its own facts has been backed up by a campaign of coercion against countries and international institutions, with stakeholders told that Taiwan’s inclusion would lead to dire consequences.

But while there is a growing movement among free nations to reject the PRC’s twisting of history and correct this a long-standing injustice, the danger of Taiwan’s exclusion looms larger each day. Indeed, it is no more apparent than in aviation safety.

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is responsible for ensuring the safe and sustainable growth of global air transport. To manage this mammoth task, the ICAO relies on a system of independently managed Flight Information Regions which form a mosaic of visibility, but where any gaps compromise the durability of the entire system.

Taipei sits at the very centre of key Asia’s busiest trade and transport routes. It is managed by Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), an organisation that has been lauded for its world-class aviation safety practices since its founding in 1947. The CAA is today proactively preparing for the next generation of air traffic control systems and is implementing safety programs to meet future challenges.

The CAA has been forced to do this work in the dark. It has been excluded from ICAO meetings for over a decade, its last attendance in 2013. This isolation sits against a backdrop of increasing and unprecedented challenges:

• Military aggression: The PRC persists in the dangerous misconception that it has authority over the Taipei FIR, unilaterally closing the airspace for exercises, flooding the region with unauthorised aircraft, and firing several ballistic missiles into the area. These grey-zone tactics deliberately undermine regional stability and the rules-based international order.

• Environmental threats: Climate change is drastically altering turbulence patterns, making weather prediction for aviation operators increasingly difficult.

• Technical risks: The growing risk of cabin fires from consumer electronics and power banks presents a significant and ongoing threat to passenger safety within the Taipei FIR.

In this environment of heightened geopolitical challenges and mounting technical challenges, Taiwan’s CAA, though exemplary, cannot maintain its high standards in isolation.

Aviation safety knows no borders. The safety of the countless passengers and cargo flights passing through one of the world’s busiest regions is at stake. The ICAO must invite the Taiwan Civil Aviation Authority to its future meetings to ensure seamless collaboration and prevent loss of life in the skies.

More broadly, as the United Nations works to achieve its founding vision of “leaving no one behind,” it is time to end the unjust and dangerous exclusion of a democratic and capable partner. The world can no longer afford the blind spots created by political pressure. We invite the world to “chip in” with Taiwan by recognising its rightful place on the world stage. Only by working together can we create a better and brighter future for the Indo-Pacific region and the world.

Douglas Hsu is the Chief Representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia.

Australian Outlook occasionally publishes pieces by figures representing government or other bodies. As with all pieces published by Outlook, these are edited and checked for facts. They do not, however, represent the view of Outlook or the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

This article is published under Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.

In October 2019, the all-female Afghan orchestra Zohra performed at the Sydney Opera House. Dressed in vibrant traditional attire, young Afghan women played to a full house, their music echoing across a venue that symbolises cultural harmony and freedom of expression. It was more than a concert. It was a moment of pride, a testament to how far Afghanistan had come in reclaiming space for women and for culture after decades of conflict.

Two years later, that same orchestra was disbanded. Their school was raided. Instruments were broken. Some musicians fled to Pakistan, others to Europe or Australia. Their music was silenced at home, although not in their hearts. This story mirrors Afghanistan itself: progress destroyed overnight, but resilience enduring.

Since August 2021, the Taliban have transformed Afghanistan into the only country in the world where girls are banned from secondary school and university. Women are barred from most jobs, excluded from public spaces, and restricted in movement even during earthquakes. In place of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the Taliban installed a ‘Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice’, the so-called morality police, turning an institution that once championed women into one that enforces their erasure.

Across the Islamic world, women are leaders, judges, entrepreneurs, and academics. Afghans know that dignity and faith can coexist. What makes Afghanistan different today is the deliberate policy of gender apartheid, and it is this policy that has kept the Taliban unrecognised internationally and excluded from the United Nations.

The rights crisis sits within a broader humanitarian one. Nearly 30 million Afghans, three quarters of the population, now depend on assistance. Poverty is almost universal. Hunger is widespread. Teachers and nurses often work without pay. Yet Afghans continue to resist despair: girls attend underground schools, small clinics operate on shoestring budgets, and journalists risk their lives to report the truth. The strongest currency in Afghanistan today is resilience.

Australia’s engagement with Afghanistan spans two decades. From Kabul to Uruzgan, Australian troops served alongside Afghan soldiers. Development programs improved health, education, and local governance. After the fall of Kabul, Australia supported emergency evacuations and expanded humanitarian visas. Thousands of Afghans have since found refuge in this country.

These are achievements of which to be proud. But any legacy is not measured by what we once did; it is defined by what we continue to do when the cameras are gone and the conflict becomes invisible. Afghanistan is not behind us. It is still unfolding, in refugee communities in Australia, in underground classrooms in Kabul, and in diplomatic forums where its people’s voice risks being silenced.

Silence is not neutral. In the absence of a clear strategy, the world risks normalising a regime that governs by repression and fear. The Taliban seek recognition without assuming the obligations that give a state its legitimacy. Quiet diplomacy is sometimes – although not always – useful. A quiet conscience is not.

Australia cannot solve Afghanistan’s crisis alone, but it can lead with clarity and principle. Five directions stand out:

Maintain diplomatic continuity. Continue supporting the accredited missions of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, including the Embassy in Canberra. These embassies represent the people, not the Taliban. Diplomacy in exile is still diplomacy, as General de Gaulle and his colleagues proved during the Second World War. Closing Afghanistan’s embassies would send the wrong signal – that legitimacy flows from force, not from constitutional order and the will of the people.

Engage without empowering the Taliban. Support must be humanitarian, conditional, and people-focused. Expand funding to trusted UN agencies and Afghan-led NGOs. Use independent monitoring and safe complaint mechanisms, especially for women. Humanitarian aid must reach people, not empower their oppressors.

Elevate Afghan women on global platforms. Increase scholarships, leadership fellowships, and safe haven visas for women blocked from study and work. Champion accountability for gender apartheid in UN forums, including the Human Rights Council and CEDAW. Where girls are banned from school, the future is banned from the country. Help keep that future alive.

Institutionalise diaspora engagement. Afghan Australians are not only recipients of protection; they are professionals, leaders, and thinkers. Establish a formal diaspora advisory mechanism within DFAT or Parliament to inform humanitarian, policy, and resettlement decisions.

Amplify Afghanistan’s voice in multilateral forums. Whether in ASEAN, the Middle East, OECD or the UN, Afghanistan must not vanish from discussion. Recognition is a tool, not a trophy. Australia can use its voice to ensure any roadmap for engagement is linked to inclusivity and concrete reforms.

A practical example of this approach is the Coordination Council of the Diplomatic Missions of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. It brings together embassies that continue to operate independently of Taliban control, and is both a practical and symbolic manifestation of Afghanistan’s standing as a state. Supporting this Council means engaging directly with legitimate Afghan representatives and keeping Afghan voices present in global diplomacy.

Some may ask why Afghanistan should remain on Australia’s agenda. There are three reasons:

Values. Afghanistan is a test case for whether international standards on women’s rights and education are upheld or quietly set aside. If those standards erode in Kabul, they weaken everywhere.

Security. Instability does not remain contained. Refugee flows, radicalisation, and ungoverned spaces in Afghanistan can spill across regions, with consequences that reach well beyond its borders.

Governance. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is already being drawn into opaque deals. Without transparency, resources risk fuelling corruption and regional rivalries rather than development. For countries such as Australia that champion accountable markets, this matters.

Some ask what role Afghan embassies still play. The answer is simple: they are one of the last visible symbols of constitutional order and international legitimacy. They remind the world that Afghanistan is not synonymous with the Taliban. Its youth, women leaders, artists, and academics still exist. There is another Afghanistan worth supporting, the nation of Afghanistan that Australia’s veterans courageously put their lives on the line to defend.

Each morning in Canberra, we raise the tricolour flag. Our staff is reduced, our resources thin, but our duty endures. We serve a people. We keep a nation’s presence alive.

When I first addressed AIIA in 2018, I spoke about expanding bilateral relations. Today, I return to keep those promises alive but now, the custodians of the state are no longer a government. They are a nation. And that truth carries greater weight than ever.

Wahidullah Waissi is the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. This article is adapted from Ambassador Wahidullah Waissi’s address at AIIA Victoria on 14 August 2025, marking four years since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan

Australian Outlook occasionally publishes pieces by figures representing government or other bodies. As with all pieces published by Outlook, these are edited and checked for facts. They do not, however, represent the view of Outlook or the Australian Institute of International Affairs.

This article is published under Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.