The Australian Eastern Mission (AEM) was a 1934 diplomatic tour of East and South-East Asia led by Australian deputy prime minister John Latham. The mission was the first such official tour sent by Australia outside of the British Empire and has been seen as a landmark in Australian foreign policy and engagement with Asia.
The mission was publicly framed as a goodwill tour, but had important commercial, diplomatic and strategic aims. It ran from 21 March to 14 June 1934 and concentrated on China, the Netherlands East Indies and Japan, with shorter visits to the British colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya, and Singapore and the American-administered Philippines. A major focus of the mission was Australian relations with Japan in the aftermath of the Manchurian Crisis. Latham's recommendations from the mission were influential on the Lyons government's trade and foreign policies in the lead-up to World War II, contributing to the expansion of the Department of External Affairs and the appointment of Australia's first diplomats in Asia later in the 1930s.