Rudd said that as U.S. President Barack Obama will soon start his second term, and China now has a new Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, "both leaders must come together to work on a strategic road map in order to tackle global issues like trade liberalization, global security and global warming."
This strategic road map includes the efforts of both countries to familiarize themselves with each other, a realistic program to make the international system work, U.S. acceptance of China's peaceful rise, and China's acceptance of the continued U.S. strategic presence in the Asia-Pacific, as well as a common commitment to a principle of non-use of force in the resolution of regional disputes, according to Rudd.
Rudd praised the model of the East Asia Summit in pursuing common security and the economic development of the region. In the past, Asia has had no such institutions to prevent or reduce the possibility of any individual incident leading to escalation across the rest of the region, Rudd said.
With the expansion of the East Asia Summit last November to include the United States and Russia, all the major powers of this region can sit around a single table at summit level with an open mandate on political, security and economic matters. Thus, confidence-building measures, greater military to military communications, joint exercises as a common response to natural disasters as well as common commitments to open economic cooperation are now possible, he said.
In order to ease tensions through misunderstandings, Rudd proposed the concept of a candid friendship, which means that both sides tell each other in which fields they disagree without questioning the fundamental friendship and respect between nations.
"You may be right or may be wrong. No one is right all the time. The key principle is recognizing these potentially vast areas we have in common while being open to and respectful about those areas where we may disagree."
Nutritious lunch provided in Taipei's elementary school