PM Rudd views Asia Pacific through US lens

On 20 November, our PM gave a speech to the Kokoda Foundation dinner on the Asia Pacific and foreign policy entitled, 'Towards an Asia-Pacific Century". The speech has a lot of useful new information but the choice of a US-Australia forum to reveal detail on the Asia Pacific, with no Asian analysts or government reps on the program seems to indicate that Australia's policy on the Asia Pacific might be seen through the lens of our relationship with the US.

Important issues covered include the emphasis on the G20 as the body with the most potential for resolving global issues, "Its strategic economic weight and its representative nature provide the G20 with potential for real long term authority."

Also he mentioned the importance of engaging our partners in the region, of hearing their insights, "China and India as two emerging economic giants must be part of solutions to global economic and financial challenges, they must be a formal part of the solution, the considered solution to global economic and financial challenges."

However, Rudd's audience was dominated by US interests - Ambassador Richard Armitage, Stanley Roth, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia in the Clinton Administration, Lieutenant -General Fraser, Deputy Commander US Pacific Command and Ambassador Robert McCallum. Strange that nobody from our region was there at a Kokoda Foundation event focused on the Asia Pacific region. The dinner was part of the Kokoda Foundation's 'Australia-US Strategic Trilogy' but you would have thought the views of analysts or government from the region would be sought.

Rudd provided more detail on his proposed Asia Pacific Community (APC) initiative, "we have started a constructive dialogue on the development of a broad-ranging, effective forum for engagement between regional countries." In response to a question from the audience on whether the APC was in the region's best interests, he said "we in the Australian Government remain completely open." I have heard that the PM's envoy, Richard Woolcott, has provided initial feedback to the PM on his meetings with regional leaders. It seems the cool reception that Rudd's APC idea has received in the region has not dampened the PM's enthusiasm for it. I wonder whether the PM will release Woolcott's report?

Also interesting was Rudd's comments on the US engagement with Asia by Bush, "I think an outstanding success of the Bush Administration has been the way it’s managed the China relationship in what could have gone radically in the wrong direction and I think it speaks well of the outgoing administration in terms of our interests and stability in this region."

Rudd also revealed some of his priorities for discussions with the new Obama administration, which included "what we can do more broadly across the region, hence our proposal for an Asia-Pacific community, and hence why we wish to engage our American friends in due season on that."