Australia’s foreign minister has urged the United Kingdom to confront its colonial past in the Indo-Pacific as Britain pushes ahead with a tilt towards the region.

In a speech to King’s College in London, Penny Wong highlighted the deep links between the two countries, saying many Australians continued to also think of themselves as British after federation more than a century ago.

“But as the nature of our nations, our regions and indeed our world has changed, so too has the character of our relationship,” Senator Wong said.

“Today, as a modern, multicultural country – home to people of more than 300 ancestries and the oldest continuing culture on Earth – Australia sees itself as being in the Indo-Pacific, and being of the Indo-Pacific.”

Senator Wong pointed to her personal history as a descendant of British colonists in Australia and Chinese immigrants to modern-day Malaysia.

“(That) other side of my family had a very different experience of British colonisation,” she said.

Senator Wong said many people from the same Chinese clans as her father laboured in tin mines and plantations for the British North Borneo company, while others – including her grandmother – worked as domestic servants for British colonists.

“Such stories can sometimes feel uncomfortable … for those whose stories they are, and for those who hear them,” she said.

Senator Wong added that Australia had not always listened to the countries of Southeast Asia and the Pacific as carefully as it could have, but the government was working to change that.

She said understanding the past brought with it the opportunity to find more common ground than if “we stayed sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories”.

Senator Wong is in the UK with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles for an annual ministerial meeting that will focus on trade and defence.

Mr Marles said the foreign minister was making the critical point in her speech that acknowledging the past allowed for deeper relationships.

“It’s really important for all countries to think about their past in terms of that providing a gateway for meaningful engagement in the future,” he told ABC TV.

“We want to see a Great Britain which is engaged in our region and they certainly seek to be that, because if Britain is engaged in the Indo-Pacific it will help provide stability … and that’s really important.”

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described the UK and Australia as “the best of mates” that for more than a century had been champions of freedom and democracy.

“In an increasingly volatile world, we are pursuing a forward-looking agenda with Australia as a trusted partner and friend,” he said.

“Together we are promoting prosperity and security in the Indo-Pacific, boosting trade, and pursuing our vital climate targets.”

– AAP