Illustration by Claudio Munoz

POLITICIANS often come to power with grand visions for reshaping their country's relations with the rest of the world—because, if they told the truth, and admitted they were only going to tinker with what they had inherited, think how boring that would be. But Kevin Rudd, who became Australia's prime minister in 2007, has better reason than most for describing his meeting with Barack Obama in Washington on March 24th as the start of a “new and important chapter in the Australia-United States relationship”.

The previous chapter, under John Howard, Mr Rudd's conservative predecessor, had earned Australia the unflattering title of America's “deputy sheriff”, thanks to Mr Howard's unstinting support for George Bush on Iraq and much else. According to Stephen Smith, Australia's foreign minister, the Rudd government got rid of that reputation when it withdrew the country's combat troops from Iraq last year. Now Mr Rudd wants to go further, building up Australia's ties in East Asia and working more through multilateral institutions, while seeking to be a partner of, not a deputy to, America.

The first test of that ambition will come in Afghanistan. Mr Rudd has always backed the war but support for it among Australians has dropped steeply from the two-thirds of 2001. An opinion poll on March 24th showed just 28% agreed with the idea of sending more troops to reinforce the 1,100 there now. Ten Australian soldiers have died, two since mid-March. Mr Rudd says he will listen to any request from America for more troops after Mr Obama's review of the Afghanistan strategy, “but listening…does not necessarily mean agreeing.”

A bigger test will be his capacity to get Mr Obama's backing for Australia's ideas in East Asia. Some of these remain fuzzy. Mr Rudd's pledge to make Australia “the most Asia-literate country in the collective West” basically involves pouring money into Asian language and culture courses in schools and universities. But he also took to Washington an ambitious scheme for a new Asia Pacific Community which, he hopes, will transform Asia's diplomatic architecture. Australia has sounded out 21 countries as possible members, including America, China, India and Japan.

As Mr Rudd sees it, China's emergence as an economic giant opens up political and security challenges that would be best handled by a new institution, not Asia's plethora of existing bodies. In a speech in Singapore last year, Mr Rudd suggested that Australia and other regional countries should seek to “influence China's view of its role and responsibility”.

The Obama administration has pledged only to talk about this. But Mr Rudd is likely to lobby hard. Allan Gyngell, head of the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think-tank, argues that he dominates foreign policy more than any Australian prime minister before him. At the least, turning the former deputy sheriff into a partner will do him no harm at home. It may even give him more clout in Asia.