Australian PM Wants Asia-Pacific Union

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Wednesday 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 Australiasia 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.

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Australian Government to Announce Civilian Corps

A civilian corps manned by everyday Australians to help out in war zones and natural disasters is set to be announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Perth on Wednesday.


Mr Rudd is expected to announce the civilian corps among nine initiatives at a community cabinet meeting in the West Australian city.


As reported in The West Australian newspaper, the regional response strategy would call on professionals and public servants. They would include defence reservists from local, state and federal governments, as well as non-government workers.


A task force has reportedly been established to develop rules of engagement for the civilian corps.



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