“The global trading system and rules-based order is under serious strain and threat,” he said.
“Meeting these challenges will require a degree of active cooperation not seen for many decades.”
Morrison spoke about climate change and the coronavirus pandemic at the Paris-based body but said the defining issue for global and regional stability,security and prosperity was the escalating great power strategic competition,including in the Indo-Pacific.
“Rapid military modernisation,tension over territorial claims,heightened economic coercion,undermining of international law – including the law of the sea – through to enhanced disinformation,foreign interference and cyber threats,enabled by new and emerging technologies,” he said.
“At this moment in history,international institutions like the OECD – institutions founded,I stress,on our shared liberal democratic,market-based values – they’re more important than ever for stability in the world and various regions from which we come.
“Australia’s prosperity rests squarely on maintaining our position as an outward-looking,open trading economy. We will never overcome our present challenges by relinquishing the hard-won lessons of the past.”