05 December 2009: The Australian
BY TOM DUSEVIC, NATIONAL CHIEF REPORTER
Kevin Rudd has urged foreign policy
opinion makers not to take peace in the Asia-Pacific for granted
KEVIN Rudd pumped more air into his
Asia-Pacific Community thought bubble yesterday before a gathering of foreign
policy opinion makers and officials in Sydney.
The Prime Minister said that, rather
than creating a new body among countries tipped next year to account for
three-quarters of global economic growth, the best way to a new acronym was to
use the materials at hand.
He set out “possible glide paths to a
future regional architecture'' and rejected a “supra-national decision-making
structure'' such as the European Union.
In bringing together the region's
frequent-flying “fo-po'' establishment, Australia's chief strategic thinker was
in his element at the start of a two-day “1.5 track dialogue'', as they say in
the talk trade.
Mr Rudd described himself as an “avowed
optimist'' and declared the region “has the dynamism and trajectory to make the
Asia-Pacific century truly Pacific.''
Nevertheless, he sounded a warning, in
effect an urgent call to action, in the face of competition over energy, food
and water, large and growing militaries, terrorism and climate change.
“Let us also acknowledge a fundamental
strategic fact: our region lies at the confluence of the interests of five
major powers -- the United States, China, India, Russia and Japan,'' Mr Rudd
said.
“These major powers live in harmony
today. But history should caution us not to assume that peace, harmony and
concord are somehow predetermined and therefore inevitable for our region . . .
The truth is, common security has to be crafted by national states driven by a
common purpose.''
Speaking at Sydney's Taronga Zoo, the
Prime Minister recalled how he had launched his APc project in June last year
in this very city.
To the surprise of neighbours, very
near and far, and close friends such as the US, Mr Rudd announced his intention
on what some saw as a whim, then dispatched retired diplomat and mandarin
Richard Woolcott as his special envoy.
“We have come a fair way in that
conversation,'' Mr Rudd told delegates, having personally pumped air into the
idea this year at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, at the East Asia Summit
in Thailand and with APEC leaders in Singapore last month.
He released what he termed the “metrics''
around his envoy's work: 21 countries, 85 days, and discussions with more than
300 people, including more than 30 ministers and eight heads of state or heads
of government.
Mr Woolcott was hired by the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a consultant and will be paid
$213,000.
The APc concept, from bubble to
balloon, has been greeted with diplomatic fixed smiles.
Behind the mask, however, it is
understood Jakarta is hostile, Beijing is not keen, India is wary, Seoul likes “middle-power
diplomacy'' on its terms and Moscow, Tokyo and Washington have their minds on
bigger things.
Mr Woolcott found leaders were not
enthused about another regional meeting given their bulging diaries.
So Canberra is proposing to build an
APc from one of the existing groupings, although each has its flaws for the
high purpose Mr Rudd has in mind.
Still, after attending the Sydney conference
in the morning, newly arrived US ambassador Jeffrey Bleich told a business
lunch that his country welcomed a regional framework that reflected the
political, economic and security realities of the 21st century.
“We applaud those efforts,'' he said
of Mr Rudd's bubble diplomacy and the nation's success at pumping above its
weight.
