Rudd promotes Asia Pacific plan strongly and clearly
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday May 30, 2009
THE Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, issued a stark warning to leaders in the Asia Pacific last night: act now to build better regional co-operation or risk conflict on the scale of that experienced by Europe last century. In a major speech in Singapore, delivered to regional military and security leaders at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Mr Rudd said managing power relations in the context of the rise of China and India would be "crucial for our collective future". In very strong language, he warned that the region faced a choice. Either "sit by and allow relations between states to be buffeted by economic and strategic shifts and shocks", or "seek to build institutions to provide anchorages for stability able to withstand the strategic stresses and strains of the future". "Will we make active choices for co-operation, or allow drift to set in that takes us in the reverse direction?"This was the Prime Minister's biggest pitch yet for his controversial plan to develop a new Asia Pacific community. When he announced the idea last June, without any prior regional consultation, the idea was met with scepticism - particularly from Singapore. Mr Rudd said last night that later this year Australia would host an international 2020 summit of sorts to discuss his Asia Pacific community idea, and he looked forward "to representation from as many countries as possible". He would invite "key government officials, academics and opinion makers from around the region to . . . discuss the future of our regional architecture for the 21st century". Mr Rudd is the first non-Asian leader to be invited by the Singaporean Government to deliver the keynote speech at the region's most important security meeting. His speech will be watched closely by the Chinese, who are very sensitive to political statements about China's growing military capabilities, as demonstrated recently with the release of the Rudd Government's defence white paper. But last night Mr Rudd talked about the importance of "military transparency" - in a reference to China. He said at present there was no single regional organisation with a "pan-regional mandate that covers the full policy spectrum"."I am concerned in the long term about the possibility of strategic drift within our region - or, even worse, strategic polarisation." He said it was "potentially dangerous" to sit idly by while the region "simply evolves -without any sense of strategic purpose".
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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