The proposal that Canada could become an associate member of the European Union is of historic moment and something which Australia should take heed.

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The geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting for good reason. An Axis of Autocracy has arisen. Trump, Xi, Putin and Netanyahu have in the past decade at least inflicted profound suffering on their own people and the people elsewhere that they seek to subjugate to their will.

Right now, Europe is the vanguard against this new Axis of Autocracy. Autocracy has grown out of the circumstances of each state. The four autocrats have not formed any formal alliance but they are joined in a common purpose of supporting autocracy and undermining democracy and the rule of law.

Autocrats Trump and Netanyahu have acted in a way that has galvanised China, Iran and Russia into active collaboration with each other. Trump's immoral withdrawal of support from Ukraine has emboldened the Russian autocrat.

The EU, on the other hand, stands for the rule of law, free trade, and government by consent. Its remit should not be restricted by the Treaty of Rome's requirement that a nation has to be in the geographic ambit of Europe to join. It would be great if other rule-of-law, free-trade liberal democracies could join it in a rule-of-law alliance to crush the Axis of Autocracy so that millions more human beings can live lives with freedom from fear and want.

Those other rule-of-law liberal democracies could join a new co-operative and free-trade alliance that could include Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia and perhaps in time India, the Philippines and even Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

The rule of law is critical. It is different from rule by law. The rule of law in the US has been eroded dramatically under Trump. In a rule-of-law country, the law is available to constrain power. In a rule-by-law countries, the holders of power use the law to enhance their power by crushing enemies and opponents and the free media, and anyone or anything else that threatens their position.

The way Trump uses the law exemplifies the distinction. He has used concocted criminal........

© Canberra Times