Australia PM Returns To Regionalist Approach

`It is in Australia`s interests to be pro-active about shaping the strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific`, Rudd said.

Australia's centre-left Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Thursday he would look to strengthen security ties with regional neighbours, but the country's alliance with Washington remained its key strategic partnership.

"It is in Australia's interests to be pro-active about shaping the strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific, and our own future, through regional engagement," Rudd said in a first-ever security statement to Australia's parliament.

He said his Labor government, already committed to continue a A$60 billion ($38 billion), 10-year military buildup, hoped to expand regular security talks with China. Rudd has visited Beijing twice since defeating former conservative leader John Howard last year.

Rudd said Australia also wanted to expand security cooperation with emerging power India, as well as Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It already has broad defence pacts with all except New Delhi and Seoul.

But he said cordial relations between the United States and China would be the foundation of country's security and future prosperity at "the dawn of the Asia-Pacific century".

The policy shift reflects a return to the regionalist approach of former Prime Minister Paul Keating in the 1990s, prior to Howard's 1996 election.

Demand for resource exports has in a short time transformed China into Australia's biggest trade partner, with two-way trade worth A$41 billion. Rudd's government has pinned its hopes of riding out a global downturn on continuing China demand.

One of Rudd's top foreign policy pledges was to order soldiers home from Iraq, while keeping around 1,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Under Howard, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, Australia was an original member of the U.S.-led coalition to oust Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, and later joined the invasion of Iraq.

As China continues the rapid build-up of its military size and strength, Rudd said the future strategic stability of the Asia-Pacific depended on the continuing strong presence of U.S. forces in the region.

Rudd said the country's 57-year-old defence alliance with Washington remained the cornerstone of defence policy.

"Our alliance with the United States will remain our key strategic partnership and the central pillar of Australian national security policy," Rudd, a fluent Mandarin speaker and former diplomat, told lawmakers.

Australia's Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon met with the outgoing U.S. ambassador after Rudd's statement to reaffirm defence ties, which include regular military exercises and exchange of personnel.