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AUSTRALIA should form an EU style group with Pacific nations to ensure future peace and prosperity in the region, General Peter Cosgrove says.
General Peter Cosgrove says such a relationship is important for the region's peace and development and would ensure the economies of the Pacific Islands flourish in the future.
"I think we should contemplate some kind of closer and interdependent economic relationship with the countries of the Pacific Forum," he told the annual Sir Paul Hasluck Lecture in Melbourne on Thursday.
"Perhaps it need not be as comprehensive or as close as the European Union, but I would start with the objects in and the operations of the EU in mind.
"I can't imagine a greater, real contribution to the strong and peaceful development and viability of the region than an initiative of this nature."
Gen Cosgrove said such a group would not only flow into commercial arrangements but into labour markets and into social and cultural areas.
"I know that this suggestion is a major step forward from the recently mooted notion of guest workers, but as I look into the future I couldn't see the opportunities for the domestic economies of the Pacific Islands to withstand challenges and to flourish," he said.
"I think for them in an economic sense to simply stagnate is to invite a plethora of vexing social and cultural issues which might come home to roost with future Australian generations."
AUSTRALIA should form an EU style group with Pacific nations to ensure future peace and prosperity in the region, General Peter Cosgrove says.
General Peter Cosgrove says such a relationship is important for the region's peace and development and would ensure the economies of the Pacific Islands flourish in the future.
"I think we should contemplate some kind of closer and interdependent economic relationship with the countries of the Pacific Forum," he told the annual Sir Paul Hasluck Lecture in Melbourne on Thursday.
"Perhaps it need not be as comprehensive or as close as the European Union, but I would start with the objects in and the operations of the EU in mind.
"I can't imagine a greater, real contribution to the strong and peaceful development and viability of the region than an initiative of this nature."
Gen Cosgrove said such a group would not only flow into commercial arrangements but into labour markets and into social and cultural areas.
"I know that this suggestion is a major step forward from the recently mooted notion of guest workers, but as I look into the future I couldn't see the opportunities for the domestic economies of the Pacific Islands to withstand challenges and to flourish," he said.
"I think for them in an economic sense to simply stagnate is to invite a plethora of vexing social and cultural issues which might come home to roost with future Australian generations."