After intense speculation, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has declared that he will contest Australia's next election, which must be held by early 2008. If he leads his coalition to victory, it will be his fifth consecutive win since 1996.
Despite occasional volatility, Mr Howard has consistently dominated opinion polls as Australia's preferred leader. Another strong motivation behind his decision to run again is a desire to lock in the positions he has built for Australia relating to Asia and the United States, as well as to reinforce domestically the conservative direction in which he has led the country these past 10 years.
Overall, Mr Howard has strengthened Australia's influence in Asia. His approach has been to recognise that Australia's relationships with some of its neighbours will always exhibit some tension, if only because of inherent political, cultural and economic differences.
But such divergence, he has reasoned, should not inhibit an acknowledgment and pursuit of common interests. So the key is to ensure that dissimilarities and resulting disputes are managed and their effects contained.
In his approach towards China, Mr Howard has separated controversial areas such as human rights from less contentious issues such as business. The two countries are looking into a mutual free-trade agreement, and during a visit to Australia by Premier Wen Jiabao in April, the agenda was dominated by economics rather than strategic topics.
Mr Howard's pragmatism has shown that Australia can enjoy solid ties with the US as well as China and Indonesia - both vocal critics of Washington. At the same time, Australian policy has been made easier by China's hunger for its natural resources, democratic change in Indonesia and a changing of the guard in Malaysia. But tensions could still emerge with Beijing over Taiwan, and China's interest in the southwestern Pacific.
Australia's standing in Southeast Asia, previously marred by rows with Malaysia and Indonesia, has never been stronger.