TWO months after he first unveiled proposals for a community of Asia-Pacific nations, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has reiterated that governments must plan for the kind of region they want to see in 2020.
It is important for countries of the wider Asia-Pacific region to have a discussion 'about the sort of regional architecture we want to see in the next 20 years', he said when delivering the Singapore Lecture, an annual series started by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in 1980.
Mr Rudd, who was on a one-day visit at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's invitation, pitched his idea for the creation of a new framework of cooperation to cover the Asia-Pacific region that would include the United States, China, Japan and India.
As he did when he first mooted the idea for an Asia-Pacific Community in June, Mr Rudd argued that global power and influence were shifting to the region.
Meeting the challenges that nations face today - be it climate change, international financial turbulence, the threat from terrorism or energy shortages - lies beyond the reach of single nations, he told an audience of government officials, diplomats, academics and others.
He was quick to acknowledge the useful roles that groupings such as Asean, the Asean Regional Forum, the more recently-established East Asia Summit, and the long-standing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum would continue to have.
'Our region has benefited greatly from the regional architecture that has emerged... These institutions have made, do make and will continue to make a great contribution to our security, stability and prosperity.'
But he went on to add: 'In 20 years' time, the global terrain may well be unrecognisable as a result of deep forces currently reshaping our world.
'As governments, I believe we have a responsibility to think about the future and to plan for it. The alternative is to sit idly by and let our world and our region be simply reshaped by events - as if we were passive bystanders. My view is simple: Either we shape the future, or the future shapes us.'
Mr Rudd's Asia-Pacific Community idea has received polite, if cool, responses from South-east Asian nations, although analysts have been more blunt in their assessment of it getting off the ground, not least because the political, cultural and economic differences in the region are vast.
Singapore, the Asean chair until late July, said in a statement in June that the Republic, like all Asean countries, 'is committed to the principle that Asean should be at the centre of any regional architecture. All Asean dialogue partners have supported this principle'.
Asean has also reminded Mr Rudd that the 10-member grouping has been playing a central role in East Asia's community-building efforts.
Unfazed by the reception to the idea to date, the Australian leader acknowledged yesterday there would be differing views. This was 'healthy', he said, and added that it was important 'to have a conversation that explores the options'.
He reiterated that his idea was not to create an economic, monetary, customs or political union, but he maintained that governments needed 'to begin our conversation about where our wider region goes from here'.
'Australia and Singapore have a long history of cooperating on effective regional architecture,' he told his audience. 'And so, we look forward to engaging with Singapore as an influential participant in that discussion.'
Mr Rudd, who arrived in the morning after visits to China and South Korea, met PM Lee for talks which covered bilateral and regional issues, and was also hosted to lunch at the Istana.
He held separate meetings with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Mr Rudd also laid a wreath at the Kranji War Memorial, where more than 2,500 Australian soldiers are buried, and opened the pre-school and junior campus of the Australian International School Singapore.
