Posted Saturday 4 December, 18:46 Bahrain time
By Dr Tim Huxley, Director for Defence and
Military Analysis
As Prime Minister
before he was deposed in a brutal palace coup earlier this year, Kevin Rudd put
much time and energy into promoting his idea for an all-singing, all-dancing
Asia Pacific Community (APC) that would provide a venue for leaders of regional
states (or at least the important ones like China and Australia) to discuss and
perhaps even manage big-picture challenges in the security and economic spheres.
The idea apparently stalled in the face of resistance from Southeast Asian
governments which feared their interests would be trampled underfoot in the
sort of new regional institution that Rudd envisaged.
While Rudd didn't mention the APC in his speech today at the Manama Dialogue,
he did talk about the need for 'new institutional structures' to deal with
Indian Ocean security. It would be interesting to know in more detail what he
has in mind, and whether this suggestion indicates any rethinking on his part
of the nature of the regional community that is needed - in other words, is his
thinking now that the putative community should stretch from the Gulf to
Northeast Asia? Or does he envisage a more restricted Indian Ocean body?
