Bastinac, who finished fifth in the 2010 NAB AFL Rising Star award in his debut season, comes out of contract at the end of next season.
But he told AFL.com.au from North's high-altitude training camp in Utah that any speculation about him joining the Giants under their uncontracted-player concessions would amount to nothing.
Asked if he saw his long-term future at the Kangaroos, Bastinac said: "Oh, definitely, yeah."
"I'm really happy at the Roos and loving it. I'm looking forward to next year and stuff like that.
"The speculation is always going to come for people who are out of contract so you can't really do much about that except go about your business. You can't stop the speculation people bring up. You can't do much about it."
Finalising a new contract for Bastinac, 20 - along with one for ruckman Todd Goldstein, 23 - looms as one of North's most immediate off-field priorities.
Along with players such as Andrew Swallow, Jack Ziebell, Leigh Adams, Levi Greenwood and Ben Cunnington, Bastinac is a key member of a young North midfield group that has the potential to become an AFL force.
After playing every game and finishing 10th in North's best and fairest in 2010, he tore the lateral meniscus (a band of cartilage) in his right knee last January.
Faced with the option of removing his meniscus and returning in four weeks or having surgery to repair it and enduring a longer lay-off, Bastinac, in consultation with North, opted for the latter course, convinced it was in his long-term interests.
It meant Bastinac missed the first 10 games of his second season. He did not miss a match after that but described his 2011 form as "pretty inconsistent" as he returned to fitness and adjusted to more attention from opposition teams.
Despite this, Bastinac is convinced he made the right call, saying his right knee is now as good as ever. It has allowed him to attack this year's Utah camp at full throttle.
However, for the second year running in Utah, Bastinac concedes he has struggled to maintain his usual position at the front of the pack in North's running time trials, with North's medical team discovering he suffers from altitude-induced asthma.
"It's frustrating because you want to be running really well but the air gets to me a little bit up here, I don't really adapt well to altitude," Bastinac says.
"After I run I can't stop coughing for 10 minutes. It's a bit of a bugger. You just want everything to go perfectly."
Bastinac has started using a ventolin inhaler to stop his coughing fits, but says he won't need to use it when North returns to Melbourne at the end of this week. Most importantly, he says he is still getting the same fitness benefits from training at high-altitude as his teammates.
Bastinac is conscious he struggled initially at training when he returned from last year's camp, but is confident he can avoid a repeat of that, saying he has handled the demands of Utah's thin air "a lot better" second time around.
In any event, Bastinac can rest easy knowing that even if he does take a while to recover from Utah again, he bounced back quickly enough last year, winning North's first time trial back after the Christmas break.
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
