The Trump administration must step up and play a great role in our region, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday evening, as the rise of China and disputes over maritime boundaries present fresh challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

In a speech delivered in Singapore, Ms Bishop delivered a full-throated defence of democratic institutions and regional norms, urging ASEAN members to champion democratic norms and institutions in the region.

Ms Bishop, who recently met US Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser HR McMaster, also linked economic prosperity with nations' democratic institutions in her Fullerton Lecture.

Following the election of President Trump, she argued, the Indo-Pacific region was in a "strategic holding pattern and waiting to see whether the US and its security allies and partners can continue to play the robust and constructive role that they have for many decades in preserving the peace".