Rudd also disagreed with former prime minister Paul Keating’s long-standing assessment that the US was trying to contain China.

“I’ve got a lot of time for Paul – he and I are friends and colleagues and I respect so much of what he’s done for Australia,” Rudd said.

“But I think I would suggest that it’s important for us also to analyse how the strategic environment in Asia and the Indo-Pacific and,for that matter,globally is changing because of China’s own military rise.”

“Certainly,what drives I think Australian strategic thinking is how do we deter our friends in China from taking a premeditated,premeditated military action against Taiwan,which would then be a fundamental destabilisation of the strategic status quo.”

Keating has long argued that Australia should not be pulled into a conflict over the future of Taiwan.

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