Kevin Rudd calls for deeper understanding of Asia
Updated
Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd says Australia must have the deepest understanding of Asia of any Western society. He made the call at the 20/20 summit in Canberra.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd; International 20/20 chair Professor Michael Wesley; Stephen Smith, Australia's Foreign Minister.
RUDD: I don't want to wake up one morning in the year 2020 with the regret of not having acted when I had the chance.
DOBELL: Kevin Rudd called together one thousand of what he called the best and the brightest Australians to think about the future, and described a fundamental challenge from Asia.
RUDD: The rise of China. The rise of India. The great economic and geopolitical transformation of the 21st Century which those two rises represent. Quite apart from the rolling structural vulnerabilities of an increasingly inter-dependant global economic order.
DOBELL: The chairman of the summit sessions on the region, Professor Michael Wesley, says Australia has ridden the boom created by Asia's economic rise. Looking out to 2020, though, he points to the deeper changes China and India will demand of the region and the global system.
WESLEY: Asia's giants are becoming wealthy and they will become powerful. They are reclaiming the role they played in the global economy before Europe came to dominate the world. This has already changed the way they see themselves. With each success, Asian societies refute the belief that the West is wealthy and powerful because it is Western; that to succeed, other societies must copy the West. As Asian societies prosper on their own terms, they become ever more confident in their own ways in seeing and shaping the world. And like powerful magnets, the Asian giants' interpretations and preferences, their sense of right and wrong, will reshape the expectations and the behaviour of the countries around them.
DOBELL: That's a vision of an Asian 21st century which means Australia will have to rethink some of its deepest assumptions about how the international system operates, and even the language spoken by the dominant states. Professor Wesley.
WESLEY: For the past 220 years, Australia has lived in a world dominated by societies that spoke our language, shared our sense of right and wrong, had similar institutions and outlooks. Those countries created a world of rules comfortable for Australia. And they held a vested interest in our well being. That world is passing. The English-speaking powers and their close allies must now negotiate with Asia's giants to manage the big issues. The rules governing how we act and what we can achieve in the world will be less familiar to us. Old certainties no longer apply.
DOBELL: And that thought shaped one of the key recommendations from the regional session, that Australia must put new money and emphasis into the teaching of Asian languages, to make its society more Asia literate. The co-chair of that discussion, Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.
SMITH:I think the big idea for me is every Australian student studying a foreign language by 2020. One of the real themes coming out of the session that I've been co-convening is that we need to engage much more effectively in Asia, and the Asia-Pacific in our region, and having language skills and having sensitivity to cultures within our region is very important. So for me, a big push on foreign languages, particularly Asian languages, would be a very good thing for us to do for our international relations, our foreign policy and our standing in the region.
DOBELL: The Prime Minister says the challenge is for Australia to have a greater understanding of Asia than any other Western society.
RUDD: Future security and prosperity, the challenge to Asia literacy, languages and cultures, and having about us a vision to make Australia the most Asia literate country in the collective West. The proposals there are worthy of real consideration.
