Speech to the Korea Press Foundation

Seoul, 14 November 2005

Australia and Korea: Shared Interests, Shared Future

Introduction

Thank you ...., ladies and gentlemen.

I would like to thank the Korea Press Foundation for allowing me to speak at this prestigious forum.

During my visits to Korea I am always struck by the values and interests Australia and Korea have in common.

We are both strong liberal democracies and share alliance relationships with the United States.

We are both committed to peace on the Korean peninsula.

We are both managing rapidly growing economic relationships with China and have a trade policy that actively pursues FTAs.

Today, I will talk about some of the things we have in common.

I will talk about the bilateral relationship with South Korea and Australia's approach to North Korea.

I will talk about our shared regional and global interests and about the values that underpin them.

And I will outline where I think our shared interests lead us - to a future relationship that is even stronger than the current one.

The Korean Peninsula

The first contact between Australia and Korea occurred in the 1880s, when Australian missionaries arrived in Busan.

Sir Robert Menzies, the chief founder of my political party and Australia's longest serving prime minister, had an aunt who was a Presbyterian missionary in Korea for many years.

Fifty years later, Australia was a founding member of the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea in 1947 and was the only country to serve on all three UN Commissions on Korea.

And in the early 1950s, Australia sent nearly 18,000 troops to fight alongside South Korea in the Korean War, sustaining 339 deaths.

Senior Koreans recall that as children they cheered as Australian jets flew overhead.

This is a very special bond between our two countries.

Today, Australia remains committed to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

I visited Pyongyang in November 2000 and again in August 2004.

I strongly urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and engage with the international community in good faith.

Through our diplomatic ties, Australia maintains this pressure on North Korea.

We take every opportunity to tell North Korea that nuclear weapons have no place on the Korean peninsula.

Australia is an active player in the global non-proliferation regime.

North Korea's nuclear ambitions pose a threat to regional and global security and cannot be accepted.

We tell them that.

Australia has a clear stake in developments on the Korean peninsula.

Though obviously not affected to anywhere near the extent Korea was, Australia too suffered in the tragedy of the Korean War.

We are committed to avoiding a repeat and to ensuring peace and stability in this part of the world.

As a major trading partner of South Korea, we have a lot to lose from conflict or chaos on the Korean peninsula,which would devastate the Korean and north-east Asian economy.

Japan, China and South Korea are Australia's largest export markets and stability in this region is important to us.

We strongly support the six-party talks process and have used our contact with North Korea to urge it firstly to re-join the six-party talks and, now, to negotiate a lasting settlement.

We have told North Korea in the strongest terms that Australia will not take forward the bilateral relationship with the DPRK until it makes real progress towards dismantling its nuclear program.

North Korea argues that it needs nuclear weapons for its security.

That's wrong.

North Korea's security would be enhanced by abandoning its nuclear weapons program and re-integrating with the international community.

That's the best way for North Korea to guarantee its economic, energy and security needs.

That's what it must do.

Australia is ready to contribute to any settlement with North Korea.

Once the North verifiably abandons its nuclear programs, Australia is willing to provide significant development aid, energy assistance and nuclear safeguards expertise to assist dismantlement.

Australia has done it before.

Outside of its Executive Board (US, Japan, ROK, EU), Australia was the single largest contributor to KEDO, providing A$22 million.

We are prepared to play our part again.

Australia is already one of the major suppliers of energy products to North East Asia, including South Korea, and this would be a logical area where we could contribute funding and expertise to a settlement brokered in the six-party talks.

Australia is also very concerned about the humanitarian situation in North Korea.

Our decisions on humanitarian assistance are separate to our positions on the nuclear issue.

Over the past 10 years, Australia has contributed more than US$40 million in humanitarian aid through multilateral organisations.

In addition to government aid, Australian NGOs such as Caritas have been working on the ground in North Korea.

The Australian people have been, and will continue to be, generous contributors to relief efforts.

It is disgraceful that North Korea has decided to expel World Food Program staff from Pyongyang by the end of 2005, and to refuse further international humanitarian aid.

This decision could have dire consequences for the people of North Korea. I urge North Korea to reconsider.

The people of North Korea deserve better.

The Relationship with South Korea

Australia's relationship with South Korea could not be more different to that with the North.

Australia and Korea share a very strong trading relationship.

Korea is Australia's fourth largest trading partner and Korea was our third largest export market in 2004-2005.

Bilateral trade expanded by around 10 per cent last year.

But what is really striking is the complementarity of trade.

Australia's strengths are in raw materials, energy, sophisticated manufactures and services.

These complement Korea's strengths in research and development, mass production and heavy industry.

Australian iron ore, for example, is used to produce the steel which goes into Korean automobiles and electronics goods.

These are exported around the world.

To use a phrase coined by President Roh Moo-hyun, Australian raw materials want to 'come home' from Korea in the form of finished products.

There are some stunning success stories in the trading relationship.

POSCO purchases more than 50 per cent of its raw materials from Australia and is Australia's number one corporate customer in the world.

The North West Shelf Australian LNG consortium secured a US$1 billion contract in South Korea in 2003.

And Australia's Macquarie Bank also has a major stake in Korea. Macquarie has 300 Korean employees here.

It arranged Korea's first private road infrastructure fund and operates joint ventures with a number of Korean banks.

South Korean companies have prospered in Australia as our economic relationship has grown.

LG has grown to become Australia's top electronics brand.

Other brands such as Samsung, Hyundai, Kia and Daewoo are household names.

Korea is developing a reputation in Australia for innovation and high technology.

The trade in services is becoming a major component of the relationship.

Tourism and education were both in Australia's top ten exports to Korea in 2004.

Australia has just placed third in the rankings of the world's top universities and Australian cities rate as the most livable in the world.

A recent global survey rates Australia 'the world's friendliest nation'.

Australia's e-visa program has made travel to Australia easier for Koreans.

Korean travel agents can apply for visas for their customers electronically.

And our working holiday maker program allows young Korean travelers to work in Australia during their stay.

In line with the vitality of the economic relationship, political engagement between our countries is strong.

Prime Minister John Howard's visit to Busan next week for APEC will be his third to Korea as Prime Minister.

Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and I have instituted annual foreign minister talks.

We have annual trade minister talks.

The Korean and Australian defence ministers have undertaken reciprocal visits this year.

Engagement of this type is important to build the personal relationships that bind our countries closer together.

So the trading relationship is very strong.

The political relationship is strong.

But what is just as important is our ability to work together to advance our shared interests and values.

Shared Global Interests

Australia and Korea are both fully engaged in combating terrorism and countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

I particularly commend Korea for its military participation in Iraq, Afghanistan and in East Timor from 1999 to 2004.

Australia has been fully engaged in these military campaigns from the start.

Dispatching troops overseas is always a politically difficult decision.

But Australia and Korea share the view that international security is an important international objective.

We have consistently demonstrated our willingness to shoulder responsibility for global security.

Likewise, we are both firmly committed to the global trading regime.

Our interests in the WTO do not necessarily coincide, but we both recognise the importance of a credible outcome to the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in mid-December.

Time is running out.

The success of the Round hinges on whether the EU, and others such as the G10, can deliver more on agriculture.

Specifically, the negotiations need to deliver on our shared mandate of substantial improvement in market access.

For the Round to move forward in the other crucial areas of non-agricultural market access and services, the impasse on agriculture must be resolved urgently.

Australia and Korea recognise climate change as a global problem requiring an effective multilateral response.

We are both founding members of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a collaboration including the United States, Japan, China and India to address energy, climate change and air pollution issues.

These countries account for about half the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

The Partnership goes further than the Kyoto Protocol by including the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters.

The first ministerial meeting of the Partnership will be hosted by Australia in 2006.

While talking about shared global interests - and what is more global than the World Cup? - it would be remiss of me not to mention that Australia and Korea share Gus Hiddinck. I use the term 'share' a little loosely here, because while Hiddinck did help Korea to the semi-finals of the last World Cup he is now firmly in Australian hands.

We plan to keep him for a while yet.

As the Australian national coach, I hope he can repeat for Australia the success he had here in Korea in 2002.

Regional Architecture

It's not surprising that the global interests we share have flowed into the regional architecture.

APEC has made an important contribution to the Asia-Pacific region since it was established in 1989.

Australia and Korea co-founded APEC 16 years ago and I'm looking forward to the meetings in Busan over the next few days.

APEC has done a great deal over the years to broaden regional support for trade liberalisation and economic openness.

At the same time, APEC has by necessity broadened its agenda over time - making valuable contributions to a range of regional challenges, including the threat posed by infectious diseases, particularly avian influenza, and cooperation on counter terrorism initiatives.

Australia will be looking to the APEC Ministerial and Leaders' meetings in coming days to make further progress in these areas.

Korea is nearing the end of its successful APEC host year, and we are starting to look ahead to the return of APEC to Australia in 2007.

We are committed to hosting a strong APEC, one which will strengthen its position as the pre-eminent forum in the Asia-Pacific region.

Australia also looks forward to participating in the first East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur in December.

The East Asia Summit will bring together leaders from 16 regional countries, representing 49 per cent of the world's population and over 20 per cent of global trade.

We live in a dynamic region and the East Asia Summit has the potential to play an important role in forging closer regional ties and in demonstrating the benefits of open regionalism.

I think we can build on our long history of cooperation and work jointly to shape the emerging architecture in our region, just as we co-founded APEC and have been central to driving it forward.

We want to see open and inclusive architecture that complements existing forums.

We also want architecture that can engage our regional neighbours and tackle important issues such as avian influenza, trade liberalisation, climate change and counter terrorism.

Shared Interests and Values: Pointing the way Forward

I would like to turn now to the future of Australia-Korea relations.

Both countries are active players in the Asia-Pacific region.

South Korea, for obvious reasons, is very much focused on the Korean peninsula, and this shapes its foreign policy preoccupations.

Nonetheless, as the current extraordinary "Korean Wave" of popular culture in the region illustrates, Korea is a country with a very modern outlook that has much to offer the wider region now and in the future.

Firstly, I would like to build on our common interests and values and strengthen the government-to-government architecture.

An FTA would certainly be in keeping with an economic relationship of this importance.

And before you say 'agriculture', let me say that I am confident agriculture could be dealt with in the course of negotiations, as it was in our FTAs with the United States and Thailand.

Agriculture is almost always the sticking point in FTA negotiations but there is always a way through.

Australia has completed or made formal progress towards an FTA with all of its top five trading partners - with the exception of Korea.

An Australia-Korea FTA would not only bring huge economic gains for both countries but would also give the political relationship more impetus and raise Korea's profile in Australia, and Australia's profile in Korea.

The establishment of a stronger relationship in the energy field is also important.

Australia is the major supplier of energy to north Asia.

We have supplied coal, petroleum and uranium to Korea and Japan for many years and have major long-term LNG contracts in Japan and China.

We are pleased to be a stable, reliable and competitive supplier of energy to our neighbours in the region.

Australian LNG suppliers will compete strongly for long-term contracts in Korea in 2006.

Success would create enduring relationships and add fibre to our important energy relationship.

In conclusion, by recognising what Australia and South Korea have in common, by acknowledging the values and interests we share, we lay the groundwork for the future of the relationship.

I look forward to working with Korea to take the relationship forward in coming years.

And I hope that we will be joining you in Germany for the World Cup in 2006.

Thank you.

ENDS