您现在的位置: Language Tips> Audio & Video> China Daily Media News  
   
 





 
Australian PM wants Asia-Pacific union
[ 2008-06-05 13:07 ]

Download

 

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday that he wants to see an Asia-Pacific Community by 2020 structured similar to the European Union.

Rudd said there was a "brittleness" in bilateral ties, and that while regional bodies like ASEAN and APEC had achieved much, there was a need for a region-wide architecture to tackle the growing challenges of the Asia-Pacific century.

"Terrorism in Southeast Asia will remain a continuing challenge. Across wider continental Asia, the rise of India and China represent great economic, environmental, energy policy and security reverberations for the future," Rudd said in a speech to the Asia Society Australasia in Sydney.

"I believe it is time that we started to think about where we want to be with our regional architecture in 2020. We need to have a vision for an Asia-Pacific Community," he said, adding the world could learn from Europe where centuries of animosity had been transformed into transnational cooperation.

Rudd said an Asia-Pacific Community, which should include the United States, Japan, China, India, Indonesia and the other states of the region, would encourage cooperation and action on economic, political and security issues but also develop a "genuine and comprehensive sense of community".

"The danger in not acting is that we run the risk of succumbing to the perception that future conflict within our region may somehow be inevitable," said Rudd.

"At present none of our existing regional mechanisms as currently configured are capable of achieving these purposes."

Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat, came to power last November and aims to forger closer ties with the region. He visited Beijing earlier this year, where he won wide praise, and he is set to travel to Japan and Indonesia later this month.

Rudd said "global economic and strategic weight" was shifting to Asia, citing Japan's post-World War II growth, Southeast Asia's recovery from the 1997 financial crisis and the now rapid growth of both India and China.

By 2020, Asia will account for an estimated 45 percent of global GDP and one-third of global trade, while Asia's share of global military spending will have grown to nearly one quarter.

Rudd said the region contained potential flashpoints - Kashmir, the Taiwan Straits, and the Korean Peninsula - and that continued economic growth would see Asia's militaries acquire "higher technology military systems".

He said Australia would welcome the evolution of the Six-Party Talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program, to become a wider regional security body.

Developing an Asia-Pacific Community would deal with terrorism, natural disasters and diseases which transcend national boundaries, while opening trading regimes across the region to provide long-term energy, resource and food security.

Rudd said the region faced a dynamic demographic challenge in the future, with populations becoming wealthier but older. He said the region's population by 2020 was projected to be 4.6 billion, out of a total global population of 7.7 billion.

APEC estimates that its member economies demand for energy will grow by around 40 per cent by 2020 and Asia's energy consumption could grow by around two-thirds by 2020.

Rudd said he had appointed Australia's former ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Wolcott, as his Asia-Pacific Community envoy to visit the region to begin the debate.

(英语点津  Helen 编辑)

About the broadcaster:

Australian PM wants Asia-Pacific union

Brendan joined The China Daily in 2007 as a language polisher in the Language Tips Department, where he writes a regular column for Chinese English Language learners, reads audio news for listeners and anchors the weekly video news in addition to assisting with on location stories. Elsewhere he writes Op’Ed pieces with a China focus that feature in the Daily’s Website opinion section.

He received his B.A. and Post Grad Dip from Curtin University in 1997 and his Masters in Community Development and Management from Charles Darwin University in 2003. He has taught in Japan, England, Australia and most recently China. His articles have featured in the Bangkok Post, The Taipei Times, The Asia News Network and in-flight magazines.

 

 
英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883631联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
相关文章 Related Story
 
 
 
本频道最新推荐
 
Walking in the US first lady's shoes
“准确无误”如何表达
英国新晋超女苏珊大妈改头换面
猪流感 swine flu
你有lottery mentality吗
翻吧推荐
 
论坛热贴
 
别乱扔垃圾。怎么译这个乱字呀?
橘子,橙子用英文怎么区分?
看Gossip Girl学英语
端午节怎么翻译?
母亲,您在天堂还好吗?