Australia: Kevin Rudd calls for deeper understanding of Asia; Push for Australians to learn Asian languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Kevin Rudd calls for deeper understanding of Asia

Updated Tue Apr 22, 2008 12:49pm AEST

Push for Australians to learn Asian languages Calls for innovative
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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.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200804/s2223427.htm

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