South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak meets with-Australia's former Prime-Minister Kevin Rudd during the G20 Seoul Summit in January 2010.
Andrew MacIntyre looks at the significance of Kevin Rudd's political rebirth as Australian Foreign Minister and the challenges he now faces in Asia. Kevin Rudd's political rebirth as foreign minister has been the subject of feverish discussion in Australia and some curiosity in the rest of the Asia. But it is more important for both Australian foreign policy and regional affairs than is at first apparent. In foreign policy terms, Kevin Rudd may be able to prevent Australia from following Canada's 'disappearing act' in Asia. This matters. Australia's national conversation has been consumed in recent weeks with the unfamiliar intricacies and uncertainties of constructing a workable government following an extremely close election giving the balance of power to a combination of the small Greens party and a handful of individual political independents. With the Labor Party and its new leader, Julia Gillard, coming out on top, one of the politically juicy questions has been the role of former leader, Kevin Rudd.
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