EU-Australia relations: a strategic partnership in all but name?

Any consideration of classifying the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Australia as a strategic partnership would not have entered the lexicon of either partner in past decades. This article traces the development and maturing of this relationship from decades of tension and recrimination to mutual understanding and engagement on issues of common interest. It illustrates that although the relationship cannot be regarded as a strategic partnership, there is evidence of increasing common ground as the two interlocutors are no longer worlds apart. There is less perception of the tyranny of distance and the burden of memory. The relationship may not be a strategic partnership, but it is a partnership that has elements that are comprehensive, reciprocal, empathetic, long-term oriented, regional and global.