AustralianSuper’s impeccably-timed decision to tip $500 million into India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) – aligning, as it did, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia for the third Australia–India Annual Summit – represents an escalation in the super fund diplomacy that the Albanese Government has used to deepen economic and political ties with key allies.

Of course, investing in infrastructure in a country that needs more of it through a fund backed by other institutional investors and a strong and stable government is hardly a losing bet. AustralianSuper first allocated to the NIIF in 2019 and says it has been one of its “best-performing infrastructure assets”.

Still, it’s impossible to separate the move from the recent trend of superannuation funds working closely with the Albanese Government to deepen diplomatic and economic ties with key allies.

That trend began to emerge in 2022, when a delegation of superannuation fund executives, led by then Minister for Financial Service Stephen Jones and Greg Combet, travelled to Indonesia and Singapore to explore emerging investment opportunities. The trip involved “in depth discussions” with the newly-established Indonesia Investment Authority and came as the Albanese Government worked to revitalise Australia’s trade and investment relationships throughout the region.

The trend became clearer in 2024, when funds jetted off to the UK to pressure the Starmer Government to take policy action to unclog a stagnant pipeline of infrastructure deals, and in early 2025, when they flocked to Washington DC and New York for a landmark four-day summit intended to highlight superannuation investment in the economy of the United States and stay the imposition of heavy tariffs on Australian exports.

A new critical minerals framework announced by the White House in October sparked controversy when it mentioned that Australia’s superannuation funds would increase investments in the US to US$1.44 trillion ($2 trillion) by 2035, with finance minister Katy Gallagher having to push back in suggestions the Albanese Government was directing where funds would invest. Still, there were more trips this year – first to the US, and then to France.

AustralianSuper’s investment is notable for the fact that it has been made much closer to home, and because the Australia–India Annual Summit culminated in the two countries releasing a new Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, “reflecting a step‑change in the depth and ambition of the bilateral defence and security relationship, and contribution to regional strength and security”.

The summit also came shortly after Anthony Albanese’s visit to the Solomon Islands, where Prime Minister Mathew Wale agreed to begin negotiations on a comprehensive treaty with Australia and said that he would review his country’s controversial security agreement with China. That visit was punctuated by China’s decision to test a nuclear-capable missile in the Pacific, the diplomatic equivalent of a horse’s head in your bed.

Against that backdrop, the pointier end of super fund diplomacy – and how it can work to enhance not just economic relations, but security ties – is much clearer. As much as people would like to believe that middle powers, like Australia, can shape the global agenda in an increasingly fragmented world, they more often exist “within the ebb and flow of great powers”, and will grasp for anything that can give them the ability to punch above their weight – for example, more than $3 trillion of retirement savings looking for long-term investment opportunities.

But the great powers can play at that game too. China is courting more private investment in its economy; a number of super funds have now visited it as part of an outreach program by the People’s Bank of China and are increasingly keen to invest where they can (i.e. where they are permitted to). While super funds may have been instrumental in enhancing Australia’s standing on the world, they will still look for the best returns where they can get them – and the Albanese Government should remember that where member money is concerned, there’s can be as much pull as push.