SYDNEY — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's vision for an East Asian community has been welcomed by an unusual ally, Richard Woolcott, the ambassador responsible for developing Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's alternative proposal for an Asia-Pacific community.
"It's very good and useful that both the Hatoyama and Rudd governments are considering how regional cooperation may best be advanced," Woolcott said.
Woolcott is a career diplomat who was instrumental in establishing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in 1989.