Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: Calling for an equal and open Asia-Pacific community

China News Service, Beijing, October 11 (Liu Mengqing) Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in Beijing on the 11th that despite differences and competition, members of the Asia-Pacific region must still manage differences, expand cooperation, and jointly build an equal and open Asia-Pacific community.

On that day, the Tongzhou Global Development Forum (2026) hosted by Renmin University of China was held in Beijing. Kevin Rudd made the above remarks.

In November this year, the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Informal Meeting will be held in Shenzhen, China, with the theme of "Building an Asia-Pacific Community and Promoting Common Prosperity." Rudd said that China has served as the host of APEC for the third time and has placed the construction of the Asia-Pacific community at the core of its work. "As a development vision, the Asia-Pacific community deserves to continue to promote its construction."

Rudd pointed out that there are important practical considerations in building the Asia-Pacific community: the center of global economic development is converging on the Asia-Pacific region. From the perspective of economic growth, Asia-Pacific is the main engine of global economic growth.

In Rudd's view, Sino-US relations are one of the most important bilateral relations in the region, and their stable development is related to the construction of the Asia-Pacific community. Citing the ancient Chinese saying "harmony without uniformity", he pointed out that competition between China and the United States objectively exists, but competition does not necessarily have to turn into confrontation. The two countries should keep competition under control and prevent out-of-control competition from endangering regional stability.

Kevin Rudd said that the quality of the Asia-Pacific community lies in whether all members can work together to address common challenges that no country can solve alone. For example, cooperation is carried out in the fields of artificial intelligence safety, climate change and green transformation, and public health, so that the community's pragmatic cooperation and joint actions can benefit ordinary individuals.

"There is a Chinese idiom that says 'we are in the same boat'. But now it is not enough to just ride in the same boat, we must also row in the same direction." He hopes that members in the Asia-Pacific region will manage differences, expand cooperation, and jointly build an Asia-Pacific community in which members, big and small, have their place.