The foreign minister of Australia’s recently formed government said her country, and most of the nations in the region, welcome the U.S. strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific area and called for increased American economic, diplomatic and military presence in an area with rapidly growing economies, rising tensions and “the potential for global flashpoints.”

But Minister Julie Bishop said Nov. 22, “we reject the notion that the future is predetermined and that conflict is the inevitable outcome” of the competition for resources and the emerging territorial disputes.

In a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Bishop recalled the history of U.S.-Australian partnership in “every major conflict in the last 100 years,” going back to World War I and continuing into Afghanistan.

“We have fought together, we have died together,” she said.

And, with the growing importance of what she called the “Indo-Pacific region,” and the tensions that have emerged with rising powers such as China and India, Bishop said, “we need a United States that is active and engaged. … There is no substitute for the United States.”

In Washington with Australia’s defense minister to meet with Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Bishop said she also met with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, whom she complement for her recent speech on the Asia-Pacific rebalance.

She said Rice assured her that regardless of how many other hot spots emerge around the world, “the United States will remain committed to our region.”

Bishop said the “rebalance” is just the latest phase in the American commitment to the region and added that “that commitment is as important now as it has ever been.”

While noting that it was not her role to give advice to another nation, Bishop said she believed she was “on safe grounds to say United States engagement in our region is more in America’s national interest than it has been in the past.”

And, she added, “nations in our region want to see more of the United States.”

Citing the increasing trade in the region, most of which moves by water, Bishop said the largest strategic challenges of the future “are likely to be maritime.”

Because of that, Australia and other regional democracies welcome the fact that “the United States Navy guarantees the passage of maritime trade, which is fundamental to regional trade and economic growth.”

The U.S. military also provides “a regional presence that has provided a check on North Korea’s nuclear proliferation,” she said.

Bishop also praised the bilateral agreement to increase American military presence in her country, to include the planned growth to 2,500 U.S. Marines on rotational deployments into Australia and increased U.S. Air Force presence for joint training and exercises.

Bishop focused a lot of her speech on the economic aspects of the U.S. presence in the Indo-Pacific region, and endorsed the proposed Trans-Pacific Trade agreement under negotiations.

“The region cannot afford the United States not to be part of regional trade,” she said.

Although she welcomed China’s growing economic strength, Bishop noted the increasing regional demands for energy, water and food that are “creating rising ambitions and rising tensions.” And she said, “territorial disputes have arisen which could spark nationalistic tension.