Paul Keating, former Prime Minister of Australia. (Photo : Getty Images)
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has called for a review of Australia's foreign policy to include a more positive strategic engagement with China.
Keating's remarks come as Australian ambassadors are returning home for a three-day conference to craft the country's first foreign policy white paper since 2003.
"If Australia were to have a positive strategic policy of engagement with China rather than a negative one, our influence on China's behavior would be much greater than it is today," Keating told reporters on Thursday.
The status quo in Australian foreign policy is that the U.S. would continue to be to the dominant power in the Asia-Pacific region.
"China is fundamentally a lonely state and looks to Australia as a supplier of much of its raw materials and therefore its development," Keating said.
"How much iron ore has it got to buy before we treat it with strategic regard?"
With newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump's controversial actions in recent days, Australian lawmakers have expressed mixed opinions on the current status of China-Australia ties.
"We want the ANZUS alliance revisited quite simply because we don't trust the guy with his finger on the button," Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said referring to President Trump.
"He's not the kind of person I think we should be having a relationship with."
Zed Seselja, another senator and assistant minister for social services and multicultural affairs, said the U.S. was and remains as Australia's most important strategic partner.
"We've heard from a number of Labor figures in recent times that we should somehow be distancing ourselves from the United States. I don't accept that," he said.
Senator Jenny McAllister said China is playing an increasingly important role in the region and Australia's warm relationship with the neighboring Asian superpower stood only to gain.
"Our view is that it is in all of our interests that we have a strong dialogue between the United States and China and that Australia is in a good place to play a role in encouraging that," she said.
