Building on ASEAN's Success: Towards an Asia Pacific Community 9789812308726

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building on asean’s success

The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publications works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

Singapore Lecture 12 August 2008

building on asean’s success Towards an Asia-Pacific Community

Kevin Rudd

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

Published in Singapore in 2008 by ISEAS Publishing Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 119614 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg © 2008 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Rudd, Kevin, 1957-. Building on ASEAN’s success: towards an Asia-Pacific Community. (Singapore lecture series, 0129-1912 ; 29) 1. Asian cooperation. 2. Pacific Area cooperation. I. Title. II. Series. DS501 I597 no. 29 2008 ISBN 978-981-230-871-9 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-230-872-6 (PDF) ISSN 0129-1912 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo­copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Typeset by International Typesetters Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Seng Lee Press Pte Ltd

CONTENTS

I

Opening Address

S. Jayakumar

1

II

Building on ASEAN’s Success: Towards an Asia-Pacific Community

Kevin Rudd

4

III

Closing Remarks

K. Kesavapany

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I Opening Address S. Jayakumar

The Honourable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia; Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 29th Singapore Lecture. We are very privileged to have The Honourable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, who is making his first official visit to Singapore, address us. Prime Minister Rudd follows in the footsteps of two of his distinguished predecessors. In 1987, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke spoke about “The Challenge of Change in the Asia-Pacific Region”. In 1996, then Prime Minister Paul Keating delivered his lecture on “Australia, Asia and the New Regionalism”. I have seen Prime Minister Rudd’s schedule for his visit. It is indeed very hectic, with every minute filled up with visits or calls. We are therefore very grateful that he has found time to deliver the Singapore Lecture today. Prime Minister Rudd’s visit to Singapore reflects the close partnership between our two countries. The friendly ties between Singapore and Australia are longstanding, stretching back to even before Singapore’s independence. Today, this cooperation is deep and broad, founded on the bedrock of common strategic interests, and spanning many diverse areas. Defence relations are strong. The Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation signed earlier today by Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Lee



Hsien Loong bears testament to this. Bilateral trade has grown, particularly since the conclusion of the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement in 2003. Singapore is Australia’s 5th largest trading partner and 7th largest foreign investor. People-to-people linkages, based on travel, education and work, are also significant. There are over 10,000 Australians living in Singapore and we have some 40,000 Singaporeans in Australia. Over the last forty years, Australian universities have educated about 100,000 Singaporeans, including a few of my Cabinet colleagues. Given our shared strategic outlook, our countries also cooperate closely in regional and international fora. Prime Minister Rudd started his illustrious career in the diplomatic service in 1981, with postings in Sweden and China. He then worked for the Premier of Queensland in various capacities. In opposition, Mr Rudd served as the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Security and Trade. He led the Australian Labor Party to victory in the general election in November 2007, only a year after assuming the party leadership. Mr Rudd’s rise from humble beginnings to the highest office in his country, to become one of the youngest Prime Ministers of Australia, has been remarkable. In the seven months that his Government has been in office, it has already started to implement ambitious reform programmes in key sectors like education, climate change and health, which will form a firm basis for Australia’s future prosperity. On the foreign policy front, Prime Minister Rudd has identified engagement with the Asia Pacific as one of the three core pillars of his government’s foreign policy. He has pledged to make Australia “the most Asia-literate country in the collective West”. Australia has also been a valuable partner of ASEAN and made many important contributions to regional processes such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Summit. Recently,



Prime Minister Rudd proposed the idea of creating an Asia-Pacific Community by 2020 and setting up an International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. This desire to begin a conversation on regional architecture and the future shape of the world is a reflection of the importance Australia attaches to its regional and international role. Singapore welcomes in particular Australia’s interest in deepening its engagement with Asia. Let me now invite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to deliver the 29th Singapore Lecture and to share with us his insights on “Building on ASEAN’s Success: Towards an Asia-Pacific Community”.

II Building on ASEAN’s Success: Towards an Asia-Pacific Community Kevin Rudd

Deputy Prime Minister Professor Jayakumar; other Singapore Ministers; Mr Yong Pung How, Council of Presidential Advisers; Members of the Singapore Parliament; Mr Wong Ah Long, Deputy Chairman of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; Ambassador Kesavapany, Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; other Distinguished Guests; Members of the diplomatic corps — including High Commissioners Albert Chua and Miles Kupa; Ladies and Gentlemen. INTRODUCTION When I arrived in Singapore this morning, the first place I visited was the Kranji War Cemetery. There is no more permanent reminder of the connection between Australia and Singapore than that sacred place. More than 2,500 Australians are buried at Kranji or are remembered on the Singapore Memorial to the Missing. These brave Australians do not lie alone.



Together with the Australians are honoured many thousands of others, including at Kranji some 2,700 British, 670 Indians and many others who gave their lives also for the defence of this island. And those that survived the battle of Singapore then had to go on and endure horror and hardship as prisoners of war. I thank the Government of Singapore for continuing to honour their memory. And it is for these great reasons that Singapore has always occupied a special place in the hearts of Australians. For Australians, military ties with Singapore are not just a matter of distant history. They have been alive through the Emergency, through Konfrontasi, and more recently through the Five Power Defence Arrangements. And they continue to inform the present as well as shape the future. Most recently, our defence forces have worked together in East Timor. And they will soon be working together in Tarin Kowt in Afghanistan. Time after time, we also find ourselves side by side in military operations, in peacekeeping operations and in humanitarian operations — as in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.



Security, defence and peacekeeping cooperation has been a fundamental, continuing part of our relationship. Part of a wider relationship between our two countries which I believe is welcomed by both our governments. It is, therefore, a great pleasure to be back in Singapore. And I want to thank the Government of Singapore for extending to me the honour of giving the Singapore Lecture. My purpose in this lecture is to outline our thinking on the possible shape of our region in the future in a rapidly changing world. And, furthermore, how we might together respond to the new challenges that these changes will create if we are to maximize our common goals of security, prosperity and sustainability for the wider region. All the more important at the dawn of what will become the Asia-Pacific century – as the centre of geo-strategic and geoeconomic gravity progressively shifts to our own region. With this shift comes great responsibility. A responsibility to ensure that this century of Asia and the Pacific remains truly pacific as previous centuries of Europe and the Atlantic have not. The changes and the challenges we face are therefore great indeed.



The Transnational Scope of the Challenge Dealing with the challenges of a more integrated world means understanding both the limitations of the state and the limitations of markets — and embracing cooperative solutions to global challenges. Challenges which lie beyond the reach of any single nation state — however powerful. For example, climate change is the consequence of the failure of free markets to adequately account for pollution externalities. Similarly, the recent international financial turbulence was precipitated by too little effective regulation, not too much. The gathering challenges of energy, water and food security reveal the need for long-term management of these critical global resources — recognizing price realities as a product of scarcity while equally recognizing macro challenges of energy and water shortages and their impact on adequate food supply. And one of the major security threats of the 21st century thus far — terrorism — has revealed itself to be diffuse, elusive and no respecter of national boundaries and largely immune to the polarized geopolitics of the Cold War era. We can say confidently that none of the major contemporary global challenges can be addressed by a retreat into isolationism or unilateralism. Today’s global challenges therefore derive from a diverse mix of market failures, ineffective regulation, and inadequate international



institutional frameworks to deal with what most of us would regard as genuinely global public goods. THE DRIVERS OF GLOBAL CHANGE The world is experiencing rapid change of an order of magnitude rarely experienced in human history. These changes are complex. These changes are greatly interconnected — defying the capacity of the traditional silos of public sector policy formulation to deal effectively with them. These changes are also, in the main, global and therefore tend to defy exclusively national responses. These changes thus demand that every nation review and renew their national objectives, their participation in regional and global institutions, and their place in a dynamic world. And nowhere is the pace of change greater than in the AsiaPacific region. Indisputable demographic and economic changes dictate that we are entering the Asia-Pacific century. It is estimated that by 2020, Asia will account for around 45 per cent of global GDP, one third of global trade and nearly one quarter of global military spending. Our region’s population is continuing to grow and is projected to reach 4.6 billion by 2020 out of a total global population of 7.7 billion.



Rapid population growth, combined with rapid urbanization, will place increasing pressure on resources, particularly in relation to energy. Asia’s energy consumption could grow by around 40 per cent by 2020, or to put it another way, more than half of the increase in global energy consumption by 2020 will come from Asia. The rise of China and India is a significant part of this shifting pattern of global economic and strategic weight towards the AsiaPacific region. This rise will be among the key defining developments of the 21st century. The rise of China in particular represents the great unfolding drama of this new century. Will China democratize? How will China respond to climate change? How will China deal with crises in the global economic and financial systems? How will China respond domestically to the global information revolution? And how will Chinese culture adjust to the array of global influences now washing across its shores directly and through the agency of the greater Chinese diaspora? How China responds to these forces will radically shape the future course of our country.

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Which means how countries such as Singapore and Australia seek to influence China’s view of its role and responsibility in the merging global and regional order is also of great importance. Beyond this shift in geopolitical power, a further factor driving global strategic change is the future course of economic globalization. The freer movement of goods, services, people and capital across borders has brought many great benefits. It has generated high rates of global growth. It has enhanced the prospects, in particular, of developing countries which have opened themselves to the international economy. The economic globalization of recent decades has also brought more people around the world out of poverty more quickly than any other time in history. The challenges of economic globalization, however, also need to be faced up to and their strategic consequences need to be addressed. The illegal movement of people, drugs, weapons and capital across borders is accelerating. There is also a growing sense of grievance among some who believe that they have not had full access to the benefits of globalization, or that they are simply worse off as a result of globalization.

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Even in states which have benefited unambiguously from globalization, there is often a backlash against it when economic times get tough. These economic realities have important strategic consequences. A third major international change is the evolution of the concept of ‘national security’. Clearly, the traditional concept of the term endures — that is, the security of one nation in relation to another. But the concept has broadened to include the threats to international and national security posed by non-state actors who facilitate the global reach of terrorism. National security is broadening even further in the outlook of some states to include food security, water security and energy security as well as security from the threat of health pandemics. Climate change will lead to changed rainfall patterns and, therefore, to changes in agricultural production that will have an impact on food security. Severe weather events will occur more frequently in some regions, making it more important that nations are ready to respond to natural disasters within and beyond their borders. Competition for increasingly scarce energy resources will make it more important than ever for nations to manage territorial disputes.

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These are all evolving concepts of national security that have significant strategic consequences. We need to ensure that our international organizations are capable of producing real results in all areas — from human rights to trade liberalization and climate change. POLICY RESPONSES As governments, the complex challenge we face is to craft policy responses to this rapidly changing region and world. The new Australian Government is committed to ensuring that we are strong at home. We are committed to enhancing our national security. That is why the Government is building a more secure Australia by strengthening our defence for the future, building on the U.S. alliance, and tackling new national security challenges, including long-term energy security. We are also committed to strengthening the Australian economy. Australia like other nations faces tough economic times ahead because of the state of the global economy. That is why the Government is building a stronger Australia through responsible economic management to put downward pressure on inflation and implementing a major economic reform agenda to strengthen our long-term competitiveness and to invest in the industries of the future.

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We are also committed to an activist diplomacy aimed at enhancing regional security and an open global economy enhanced by effective institutional and regulatory arrangements. To achieve this we must act in concert with other states — both regionally and globally. Singapore’s Achievements Australia — like Singapore — is naturally an outward-looking country. We both understand the fundamental truth that our future can only be as nations fully engaged in global and regional affairs. Singapore has demonstrated a remarkable global reach well beyond the physical size of this island republic. This is equally remarkable given that Singapore is such a new nation state. Only forty-five years ago, Singapore joined with Malaysia. And then two years later embarked on its own independent course. In the forty-three years since, Singapore has exhibited a significant record of achievement. For a state to establish itself following the turmoil of independence is no easy task.

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Entire national structures must be built. The institutions of a national economy have to be developed from the ground up. And Singapore’s international personality had to be established. In all of these things, and against any comparable global measure, Singapore has been a unique success story. Singapore has become a major centre of regional and global trade. Singapore has become a global transport centre. Singapore has become a global financial centre. Singapore has also maintained a peaceful multi-ethnic society in a region where ethnic tensions have been, from time to time, acute. There is therefore great potential for our two countries to work creatively together to respond to the great challenges of our region and our world. ASEAN Singapore already has a long track record of positive regional activism through ASEAN. At the height of the Cold War, forty-one years ago, the leaders of five Southeast Asian nations got together to form ASEAN.

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Singapore was one of the nations that helped to chart the future course for ASEAN as a founding member. The world has changed a lot in the intervening forty-one years, but ASEAN has endured. In fact, ASEAN has done more than just endure, it has grown and it has matured. During Singapore’s Chairmanship of ASEAN over the past twelve months, the ASEAN Charter was signed — a new milestone in ASEAN’s evolution. I think that ASEAN’s most impressive achievement — and one that is often under-appreciated — is building a sense of regional identity, a sense of community, and a sense of neighbourhood. The countries of Southeast Asia have diverse histories, political systems, religious beliefs, social systems, and cultural backgrounds. But a real sense of community has been forged where there had been historically few substantive ties. In fact when ASEAN was formed, the member states themselves had been riven by conflict then raging through Indochina. Forty years later, by absolute contrast, the habits of cooperation have crafted a sense of genuine community. It is a community that defaults first towards dialogue rather than confrontation.

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It is a neighbourhood whose residents seek, first and foremost, to cooperate more closely with each other. In this sense, ASEAN represents an outstanding essay in institutional success for which member states, including Singapore, should be congratulated. Some criticize ASEAN for being insufficiently activist. I argue that this criticism is misplaced because it fails to appreciate that ASEAN’s great success has been to avoid conflict among member states and allow economic development to progress unimpeded by intra-regional security concerns. That is why I argue that ASEAN has been a remarkable success story. ASEAN in turn has given rise to other elements of the wider regional architecture including the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia Europe Meeting (AEM), and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). Australia is therefore proud that it was ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner in 1974. APEC Of course, another example of cooperation is the one with the broadest membership in our region — and that is APEC. Once described by Gareth Evans as “four adjectives in search of a noun”, APEC has become a noun in its own right nowadays.

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APEC has shown that its model of cooperation and dialogue can deliver practical results across the wider region. Much of the day-to-day work of APEC on harmonization of cus­ toms regulations and similar topics may not shape the global terrain. But they do make a practical difference to businesses. They make it easier to conduct business across international boundaries and that helps to drive economic growth by the lowering of the costs of transactions. If we can take forward APEC’s idea for a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (as recommended by the United States), it would be a significant boost to regional prosperity. APEC also works in the important area of regional disaster response — a field in which the ASEAN Regional Forum also plays a role. If you look around our region over the past decade, the cost of natural disasters has been staggering. Last year, according to the Red Cross, 241 disasters across Asia resulted in more than 15,000 deaths. And this year the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China have reminded us of the power of nature — more than 150,000 lost their lives and so many hundreds of thousands more have been seriously affected. And these events have reminded us of the need to be able to react quickly.

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What is more, they have reminded us that responding to large-scale natural disasters is often beyond the power of even the largest states. But, if we pool our resources and if we coordinate our assets, we can do more and we can get better results. In responding to a crisis, the first 24, 48 or 72 hours are critical. So, we need regional mechanisms that facilitate a quick response. Australia and Indonesia are going to take a proposal to the APEC Leaders Meeting in Lima, Peru, this year about regional disaster management coordination. Next year Singapore will host APEC — and I know that Singapore is already working hard to make sure that next year’s agenda will be ambitious. Australia is committed to working closely with Singapore in the lead-up to APEC next year. Just as we will work with Japan and the United States over the following two years when they will host the APEC Leaders’ Meeting. APEC has a record of helping shape regional responses to challenges like trade liberalization, trade facilitation, as well as providing a regular forum for meetings of regional heads of government including those of China and the United States.

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THE CONCEPT OF AN ASIA-PACIFIC COMMUNITY Over the years, our regional architecture has evolved. It is not static. It has changed greatly since the first steps were taken to establish ASEAN forty-one years ago. Our region has benefited greatly from the regional architecture that has emerged. The founders of ASEAN, of APEC and of the East Asia Summit did us a great favour in establishing these organizations. These institutions have made, do make and will continue to make a great contribution to our security, stability and prosperity. Earlier I outlined the key drivers of global change. In twenty years’ time, the global terrain may well be unrecog­ nizable 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 to 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.

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We need to prepare our countries for the future, and we need to prepare our region for the future. It is for this reason that two months ago in Sydney I high­ lighted the advantages for the wider Asia-Pacific region in engaging in a conversation about the future of our regional architecture. And further that that conversation would be usefully directed at how we could develop a concept of an Asia-Pacific Community. Of course, we want a stable region that is secure, open and prosperous. Our region should be one that opens channels between countries, not one that erects barriers between them. But how do we ensure that we get that sort of region? How do we avoid any accidental slide into complacency, competition or even conflict, rather than engrain the habits of cooperation? One constructive way would be to have a regional discussion about the sort of regional architecture we want to see in the next twenty years. Open dialogue and discussion is the first step in planning where we want to be. Inevitably, there will be differing views on this question. That is a healthy thing.

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But it is important to have a conversation that explores the options. We need to make sure that engaged in an open conversation the United States, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia and others —

all of the major players are about the region’s future — Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, including India.

And we need to be able to conduct continuous dialogue on any and every challenge we might face — from climate change to economic liberalization, to security cooperation to natural disaster management. Because as I noted at the outset of this Singapore Lecture, the challenges we face no longer fit neatly within the boundaries of politics, economics, environmental or security concerns. They cross over these boundaries. And they eventually cross over national boundaries. Furthermore, let us be clear about what an Asia-Pacific Community is not. It is not an economic union. It is not a monetary union. It is not at this stage a customs union. And it is certainly not a political union.

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All of our existing regional mechanisms have a critical role to play both now and into the future — including ASEAN, APEC and the EAS. But, at the same time, we need to begin our conversation about where our wider region goes from here. And this is where the wider region needs to learn from ASEAN’s success — how to build the institutions, habits and practices of cooperation across the policy spectrum and across historically uncomfortable national divides. Australia and Singapore have a long history of cooperating on effective regional architecture. And so we look forward to engaging with Singapore as an influential participant in that discussion. Australia remains open to the suggestions of our regional partners as this discussion unfolds. Because by definition, an APC by 2020 is very much a longterm project for the future. GLOBAL CHALLENGES Beyond the region, the long-term capacity of our global institutions to deal with the new generation of global challenges we face also demands debate. The United Nations remains in need of reform given that many of the challenges to the global system today were not envisaged in 1945.

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The International Financial Institutions also remain in need of reform — including a new role for the IMF to deal with global financial crises of a type not envisaged at the time of Bretton Woods in 1944. The failure of the WTO to deliver the Doha Round also reminds us that the political will of the membership is crucial to the success of international bodies. Climate change also looms as a major new challenge to the global system. The strength of the global community on this challenge will be critically tested at Copenhagen. And then there is the continuing challenge of nonproliferation for which the next global challenge looms at the point of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference in 2010. The Australian Government has established an International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament. It will be co-chaired by former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi. The Commission has a big task in front of it. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has done a good job over the past forty years in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. But some states have sought to challenge the NPT.

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North Korea has developed a nuclear programme — although we welcome the recent progress towards solving the question of this programme. Other states, such as Iran, have defied the International Atomic Energy Agency and, in doing so, have undermined the Treaty. With the next five-yearly review of the Treaty due in 2010, we need to look at how we can strengthen support for the Treaty. We need to strengthen support for safeguards so that nuclear material is strictly controlled. And we need to develop new thinking about how we work towards the goal of the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. It is crucial that we build widespread support for the Treaty, across regions and between those states with nuclear weapons and those without. The Commission’s task is to help build that support. GOING FORWARD For Australia, an important element in all of these challenges is our ongoing cooperation with Singapore, the broader ASEAN membership, and the wider region. Australia’s future will also depend on our ability to engage con­ structively and effectively with the countries of the Asia Pacific.

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That is why I am committed to making Australia the most Asia-literate country in the collective West. By investing in Asian languages and cultural education in Australia’s schools, my vision is for the next generation of Australians — businessmen and women, economists, accountants, lawyers, architects, artists, film-makers and performers — to develop language skills which open their region to them. This is part of our long-term vision for a fully regionally engaged Australian nation in this Asia-Pacific century that now unfolds before us. And in Australia, that process has already begun. CONCLUSION I began this lecture by addressing the drivers of global strategic change. I want to conclude by saying that to deal with the challenges that arise from these changes, we need effective global institutions, we need effective regional institutions and we need close cooperation with reliable partners. For Australia, one such partner is Singapore. We will not always agree. Nor should we. That is inevitable for tough-minded nation states like ours.

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But because of the common history we share, our many common interests, and our common awareness of the challenges we face, the potential for us to do more together in the region, and in the world for the common good is very great indeed.

III Closing Remarks K. Kesavapany

The Honourable Professor S. Jayakumar, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the 29th Singapore Lecture; The Honourable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia; Distinguished Members of the Australian Delegation; Ministers Dr Lee Boon Yang and Mr Raymond Lim; Ministers of State, Council of Presidential Advisers Member and former Chief Justice Mr Yong Pung How; HE Miles Kupa, High Commissioner of Australia to Singapore and Mrs Kupa; Mr Wong Ah Long, Deputy Chairman, ISEAS; Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is a pleasure and privilege for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies to host the 29th Singapore Lecture delivered by the Honourable Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. The Chairman of the Institute, Professor Wang Gungwu has asked me to convey his regrets for not being present here. He is away on scholastic duty in New Delhi. On behalf of the audience, I thank you, Sir, for your lucid exposition on the topic, “Building on ASEAN’s Success: Towards an Asia-Pacific Community”. Australia is a friend of Asia. Our paths cross at many points — economic, political and strategic — intertwining our destinies

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as well. Australia’s multicultural society resonates in the many multiracial societies that make up the nations of Asia. Its open and forward-looking policies are a source of strength to Asian countries that are tapping into the energizing opportunities created by globalization. Australia contributes to the security architecture needed to fight against terrorism. We in Asia appreciate Australia’s role in all these spheres of activity. Mr Prime Minister, you have given us your vision of how a new regional architecture can be shaped to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities of the 21st century. Australia’s presence and participation in the various regional communities will help us to achieve greater regional cooperation and economic integration. We in Singapore share your country’s aspirations to build a harmonious, cooperative, peaceful and prosperous Asia. Speaking for the Institute, which researches extensively on regional integration issues, we are grateful for the intellectual input you have given us. It is going to keep us busy for some time to come. On this note, it now gives me great pleasure to call upon the Deputy Chairman of ISEAS, Mr Wong Ah Long, to present to our distinguished guest a book entitled The Encyclopaedia of the Chinese Overseas, edited by Lynn Pan, a well-known Mandarinspeaker and aficionado of things Chinese. We hope this book will bring you some reading pleasure. Thank you.

kelvin rudd Kevin Michael Rudd was sworn in as the 26th Prime Minister of Australia on 3 December 2007, after he led the Australian Labor Party to an election win on 24 November. Mr Rudd was born in the country town of Nambour in Queensland in 1957, the son of a share farmer and a nurse. Mr Rudd was educated at the Eumundi Primary School, Marist College Ashgrove and Nambour State High School, where he was Dux of the school. He joined the Australian Labor Party at the age of fifteen in 1972. Prior to entering Parliament in 1998, Mr Rudd worked as a diplomat, as a senior official in the Queensland Government, and as a consultant helping Australian firms to establish and build their business links in China. Mr Rudd gained his Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) degree with First Class Honours in 1981 from the Australian National University in Canberra. After graduation he was appointed to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs as a cadet diplomat. He served in the Australian Embassy in Stockholm as Third Secretary and later in the Embassy in Beijing as First Secretary. In 1988, Mr Rudd was promoted to the rank of Counsellor and later to the Senior Executive Service. In 1988 Mr Rudd returned to Queensland to work as Chief of Staff to the Hon Wayne Goss, the Queensland Opposition Leader. Mr Goss made history the following year, leading the Queensland Labor Party back to government in its first election win since 1956. Mr Rudd served in the Goss Government first as Chief of Staff to

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the Premier and later driving the Government’s reform programme as Director General of the Cabinet Office, the central policy agency of the Queensland Government. During this period, Mr Rudd, a Mandarin speaker, was also appointed by Prime Minister Keating and the State Premiers to chair an inter-government committee to develop a National Asian Language and Studies Strategy for Australian schools. Mr Rudd contested the Federal seat of Griffith for the Australian Labor Party in 1996. The Keating Labor Government was defeated at the 1996 election and Mr Rudd’s bid to win a seat in parliament was unsuccessful. Between 1996 and 1998 Mr Rudd then worked in business, primarily as the Senior China Consultant for KPMG Australia. His role focused on opening up trade and business opportunities for Australian corporates in China and Taiwan. In 1998 Mr Rudd again contested the seat of Griffith and was elected to the Parliament of Australia. He was immediately elected Chair of the Parliamentary Labor Party’s Committee on National Security & Trade and served on a variety of parliamentary committees and taskforces. Following the November 2001 election, Mr Rudd was appointed Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, subsequently adding responsibilities for International Security in 2003 and Trade in 2005. On 4 December 2006 Mr Rudd was elected as the 19th leader of the Australian Labor Party. Over the following twelve months he travelled extensively throughout Australia, campaigning on a policy platform focused on education reforms, climate change, health care, reforming Australia’s Federal system of government and restoring fairness to Australian industrial relations laws.

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On 24 November 2007 Mr Rudd led the Australian Labor Party to government, winning 24 seats following the largest electoral swing in an Australian election since 1975. Mr Rudd is only the second Queenslander in Australian history to lead his party to a Federal election victory. Mr Rudd has written extensively on Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, Australia-Asia relations and globalization. Mr Rudd and his wife Thérèse were married in 1981. They have three children — Jessica (married to Albert Tse), Nicholas and Marcus.

THE SINGAPORE LECTURE SERIES

Inaugural Singapore Lecture 14 October 1980 The Invisible Hand in Economics and Politics by MILTON FRIEDMAN 2nd Singapore Lecture 30 October 1981 American Foreign Policy: A Global View by HENRY KISSINGER 3rd Singapore Lecture 2 December 1982 Peace and East-West Relations by GISCARD D’ESTAING 4th Singapore Lecture 10 November 1983 The Soviet Union: Challenges and Responses as Seen from the European Point of View by HELMUT SCHMIDT 5th Singapore Lecture 8 November 1984 The Western Alliance: Its Future and Its Implications for Asia by JOSEPH M.A.H. LUNS 6th Singapore Lecture 5 December 1985 Deficits, Debts, and Demographics: Three Fundamentals Affecting Our Long-Term Economic Future by PETER G. PETERSON

33 7th Singapore Lecture 25 November 1986 Trends in the International Financial System by RAYMOND BARRE 8th Singapore Lecture 27 November 1987 The Challenge of Change in the Asia-Pacific Region by BOB HAWKE 9th Singapore Lecture 14 December 1988 Regionalism, Globalism and Spheres of Influence: ASEAN and the Challenge of Change into the 21st Century by MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD 10th Singapore Lecture 15 October 1989 Trade Outlook: Globalization or Regionalization by BRIAN MULRONEY 11th Singapore Lecture 3 April 1991 International Economic Developments by R.F.M. LUBBERS 12th Singapore Lecture 4 January 1992 U.S. Policy in the Asia-Pacific Region: Meeting the Challenges of the Post Cold-War Era by GEORGE BUSH

34 13th Singapore Lecture 8 September 1994 India and the Asia-Pacific: Forging a New Relationship by P.V. NARASIMHA RAO 14th Singapore Lecture 17 January 1996 Australia, Asia and the New Regionalism by PAUL KEATING

15th Singapore Lecture 14 January 1997 Reforms for the New Era of Japan and ASEAN: For a Broader and Deeper Partnership by RYUTARO HASHIMOTO 16th Singapore Lecture 6 March 1997 South and Southern Africa into the Next Century by NELSON R. MANDELA

17th Singapore Lecture 30 November 1999 China and Asia in the New Century by ZHU RONGJI

18th Singapore Lecture 14 February 2000 Global Values: The United Nations and the Rule of Law in the 21st Century by Kofi A. Annan

35 19th Singapore Lecture 27 November 2000 Peace on the Korean Peninsula and East Asia by KIM DAE-JUNG 20th Singapore Lecture 14 January 2002 Japan and ASEAN in East Asia: A Sincere and Open Partnership by JUNICHIRO KOIZUMI 21st Singapore Lecture 9 April 2002 India’s Perspectives on ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific Region by ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE 22nd Singapore Lecture 6 July 2002 EU-Asia: Sharing Diversity in an Inter-regional Partnership by ROMANO PRODI 23rd Singapore Lecture 13 May 2003 Investments into the Future: State and Economy at the Beginning of the 21st Century by GERHARD SCHRÖDER 24th Singapore Lecture 30 April 2004 Global Challenges in the 21st Century: A View from Chile by Ricardo Lagos 25th Singapore Lecture 16 February 2005 Indonesia: The Challenge of Change by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

36 26th Singapore Lecture 21 April 2005 Africa’s Season of Hope: The Dawn of a New Africa-Asia Partnership by thabo mvuyelwa mbeki 27th Singapore Lecture 1 February 2006 Evolution of Enlightened Societies by A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM 28th Singapore Lecture 11 April 2006 Opportunities and Challenges for Asian-Arabian Ties by suLtan bin abdul aziz al-sAud 29th Singapore Lecture 12 August 2008 Building on ASEAN’s Success: Towards an Asia-Pacific Community by kevin rudd