BEIJING, November 11 (People’s Daily Online) - In the course of regional strategic order transformation, one must accord China a substantially greater position and include a substantial leadership role for the United States, said Bob Hawke, former Australian Prime Minister.

One of the advocates of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Hawke reviewed his efforts with APEC and presented his outlook of future development in this region in a keynote speech delivered at 2014 APEC China Day-High Level Summit.

Asia today is experiencing radically new and different distribution of wealth and power and it is unwise to stay in the old relationship patterns.

"We have only to recall how profoundly that event transformed the international order to see how foolish it would be to imagine that the pattern of relations which has kept Asia so stable for the past few decades can continue to do so in the decades to come," says Hawke in his keynote speech.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of establishment of APEC and the centre of the world is gradually moved towards Asia from the Atlantic.

In the new course of global wealth distribution, Hawke mentioned that Chinese voice and position should be valued because China has so much to offer the region as a leader over the decades ahead in view of remarkable achievements in the past 30 years.

Hawke mentioned that after Chinese President Xi Jinping's proposal of establishing “a new model of great power relations” in Asia, China's government has made it clear that China no longer accepts U.S. primacy as the foundation of regional order. "It is quite understandable that China wants to seek something different," Hawke added.

On the other hands, the leadership role of the U.S., a vital engine of economic growth both as a source of capital, ideas and imports, and as a destination for exports, should be taken into account in regional new order. "No one can doubt America’s absolutely pivotal role in creating and upholding the regional order," says Hawke.

"It is equally understandable that most Americans would prefer to preserve the status quo and perpetuate their position of regional leadership for they believe that their leadership has served the region well," Hawke says

However, the role that the U.S. is playing now will alter in Asian strategic affairs in future.

According to Hawke, it is not smart to choose between the U.S. primacy or Chinese primacy. On the contrary it must construct a new order in which both of them play major.

For the sake of mutual benefit in the region, creating a new order in Asia-Pacific is not one for the U.S. and China alone. All the economies in this region have an immense stake.