Kevin Rudd: It's a great honor to act as Australian Foreign Affairs Minister
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Newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday held his first official news conference since being deposed as Australian Prime Minister in June this year.
![Kevin Rudd[Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20100915/000cf1bdd03f0dfa830048.jpg "Kevin Rudd[Xinhua]") |
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Kevin Rudd[Xinhua] |
"It's a great honor to act as Australian Foreign Affairs Minister," Rudd told the media conference in Canberra on Wednesday.
"I am proud to be part of the (Prime Minister Julia) Gillard Government."
Using the press conference, Rudd called on other countries to do more to help the victims of the Pakistan floods, as he prepares to tour the disaster zone.
The former prime minister said it was clear a "slow-burn humanitarian disaster" was unfolding in Pakistan.
"A humanitarian disaster potentially of horrendous proportions, " Rudd said.
Rudd warned the situation in Pakistan could significantly worsen if there was a deadly outbreak of water-borne diseases and the international community did not do more to help.
"We do not want to turn around in three and six months time and ask ourselves this question: what more could we have done or should we have done to avert a humanitarian disaster?
"The time for action is now."
Twenty million people have been affected by the floods, while six million are entirely dependent on emergency food supplies, and Australia was the fifth largest donor to the cause, chipping in 35 million dollars (32.4 million U.S. dollars) so far.
After being officially sworn into his new role on Tuesday, Rudd will fly to Pakistan on Wednesday to see Australia's relief efforts in the country's flood-affected areas, before heading to the U.S. for meetings in Washington and New York.
In New York, Rudd will attend the first meeting of a United Nations (UN) panel on sustainability and climate change, which he has been made a member of.
He said the appointment as part of the UN panel was made to him in his own right some time ago, and will consist of three meetings over the next 18 months.
"It will simply be one of many, many, many things that I'll be doing as foreign minister of Australia," Rudd said.
The panel is co-chaired by the presidents of Finland and South Africa.
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