Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser has urged Australia to become independent of the world's super powers.

"I don't want to be a puppy dog to the United States as we have been over the last 10 or 15 years, just doing what America wants," Mr Fraser said.

Mr Fraser told Radio Australia's Connect Asia he doesn't want Australia to replace one dependence with another.

"That doesn't mean to say that I want an alignment with China, I don't," Mr Fraser said.

Mr Fraser says Australia should look to create stronger ties with other independent countries in our region, such as Indonesia.

"Not many Australians realise that throughout all of our history we have behaved as though we were dependent on a great power," he said.

"Up until the Second World War we depended on Britain," Mr Fraser said.

Since then, Mr Fraser says, Australia has relied on the United States.

"But now a different world has emerged, the Cold War is over and America is a different America from the one that won the Cold War," Mr Fraser said.

Mr Fraser says China has played a big part in the changing world.

"China has emerged as the most significant trading partner, the major trading partner of Australia and every other country in the Western Pacific," he said.

"Her markets, her finances are closely intertwined with the West," he said.

"She is the largest buyer of US Treasury bonds and therefore America herself is significantly dependent on China."

Mr Fraser says Australia is an important part of plans by the US to build up its military in the Pacific to contain China.

"It's quite wrong and it puts Australia in I believe a dangerous position to be part of it," Mr Fraser said.