Oceania
| Asia-Pacific community Conference |
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I first proposed the development of an Asia Pacific community by 2020 in June 2008, with the intention of opening a process of dialogue within the region which could help identify a shared vision and goals for the Asia-Pacific for the coming century. The vision for an Asia Pacific community stems from a conviction that greater cooperation leads to a stronger collective future. As a region, we cannot passively stand by with full knowledge of the challenges we will face and simply hope for the best. The pace of growth, change and interaction in our region is too great for such an approach. Instead, we need to harness our dynamic economic, strategic and technological power to prepare the Asia-Pacific for its emerging role as the engine of global growth and prosperity. My view is simple: either we shape the future, or the future shapes us. Australia does not have a prescriptive view on what shape an Asia Pacific community could or should take. But we do know that the time for this conversation has come. To take this conversation forward, I appointed a Special Envoy on the Asia Pacific community, Richard Woolcott, a distinguished Australian diplomat who together with others did much of the diplomatic leg work in the formation of APEC twenty years ago. Over the past 18 months, Mr Woolcott has visited capitals in the region to discuss the Asia Pacific community proposal. He has found significant interest in taking this concept forward, a wish to explore the possibilities without any fixed or final views on a destination. I have encountered similar support during my recent discussions with regional leaders at the East Asia Summit and APEC. Against this backdrop Australia will convene a one-and-a-half track conference in Sydney on 3 - 5 December to further explore the idea of an Asia Pacific community. Source : http://www.apc2009conference.org/site/ A summary report of the Conference is available here as a PDF document. |
As yet, there is no single institution in the Asia-Pacific region with the membership and mandate to address comprehensively the challenges ahead. Such an institution would be invaluable in managing an increasingly crowded landscape of intra-regional interactions and ensure that outward-looking regionalism is sustained as the bedrock of Asia-Pacific integration. It could foster ongoing habits of cooperation and mutual assistance and help mitigate the risk of a drift into destructive competition and intra-regional conflict.