http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/13076929/carr-hits-the-ground-running/Incoming Foreign Minister Bob Carr has hit the ground running, already speaking with his world counterparts and drawing up plans for his first overseas trip.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointed the former NSW premier on Friday to replace Kevin Rudd, who quit the coveted job to challenge her for the Labor leadership late last month.
Mr Carr will take up the job after filling the Senate vacancy left by Mark Arbib in the coming weeks.
But he's not waiting to be sworn in before getting stuck into the job he's wanted for more than three decades.
Mr Carr on Saturday said he had already spoken with some of his foreign minister colleagues around the world, including UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Mr Hague tweeted: "Had a very good talk with my new Australian counterpart Bob Carr this morning. I know he will be an excellent colleague."
Mr Carr said he planned to make his first overseas visit to New Zealand to discuss the South Pacific.
"Even while I'm foreign minister-designate I'd look to shoot across there to pay them the courtesy of some consultation, given their expert feel for the politics of the South Pacific," Mr Carr told ABC Radio.
Mr Carr conceded that the week of speculation and confusion that preceded his eventual appointment had been messy.
"But in the end the prime minister cut through," he said.
"Ministerial reshuffles are often untidy and brutal affairs."
Mr Carr repeated that he would continue to pursue Australia's costly bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council.
"We've got a strong case and given the expansion of Australia's foreign policy interests and horizons that took place very notably under Kevin Rudd ... it's got to be said that the security council is very important to us," he said.
Mr Carr described Australia's alliance with the US as a security "bedrock" and said Australia was now taken more seriously in Washington than it had been in a long time.
Mr Carr described himself as a foreign policy realist, a term most commonly used to describe theorists who place national self-interests above ideological or moral motivations.
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