Australia and Japan - Deepening our Comprehensive Partnership
National Press Club, Tokyo
Speech (check against delivery)
20 May 2010
Introduction
Thank you for your kind introduction. It is my great pleasure to be here today in Tokyo. I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak to you again at the National Press Club.
This is my sixth visit to Japan as Foreign Minister. The frequency of my visits here reflects the importance Australia places on Japan, and the enduring strength and breadth of our comprehensive economic, strategic and security partnership.
This view of the enduring strength of the relationship is one that is shared by my good friend Foreign Minister Okada, who recently visited Australia for the first time as Foreign Minister of Japan.
Mr Okada was the first minister in the Hatoyama Government to visit Australia and he brought the message that Japan wants to build on all the elements of its relationship with Australia - economics, political and security relations, and our people-to-people links. His commitment to building the relationship is warmly appreciated and one which the Australian Government reciprocates. I also appreciate the international leadership he has shown on the critical question of nuclear disarmament.
Today I want to talk about how we can further leverage our partnership, so that together we can help shape our region into the future.
This requires being more imaginative and creative in our diplomacy. It requires thinking together beyond our bilateral interests to what we might do regionally and globally.
Globalisation has brought many opportunities, but has created complex problems that require strong regional and global leadership to solve. United in our modern partnership, Australia and Japan can help lead the way in tackling the most pressing global challenges.
In the course of this century, global economic, strategic and political influence will continue to move to the Asia Pacific Region. As key nations in our region, Australia and Japan have a particular responsibility to help shape the region's future.
Cheonan Investigation
Before I elaborate on the strength of the Australia-Japan relationship, I want to talk about a very serious development in this region.
This morning in Seoul, the South Korea Government released the findings of the South Korea-led team that investigated the 26 March sinking of the navy vessel the Cheonan.
The Australian Government participated in the investigation and the leader of the Australian team has endorsed the findings.
The findings are of very grave concern to Australia. They point clearly to North Korean responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan.
Australia condemns North Korea, in the strongest possible terms, for this violent act.
This act represents a flagrant violation of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement and the United Nations Charter.
The international community cannot stand by and let this pass without consequence.
The Australian Government is calling for leadership by the United Nations Security Council, as the body charged with responding to threats to international peace and security.
The Australian Government will support strongly the South Korean Government as it seeks to respond to this provocation.
Australia is working closely with its partners - the ROK, Japan, the United States and others - to ensure that North Korea understands that such unprovoked violence, threatening the security of the region, is unacceptable.
A Strong Relationship
Japan is Australia's closest friend and our strongest supporter in Asia. Our relationship extends back into the 19th century and has deepened and strengthened over time.
We have developed a comprehensive partnership that encompasses strategic, security and economic cooperation; as well as people-to-people collaboration on a wide range of activities. At the heart of our relationship are shared values, intersecting interests and common approaches to regional and international challenges.
We are both developed market economies and robust democracies. We are both committed to the protection of human rights and the rule of law. We are both Alliance partners of the United States. We are active members of the United Nations and we are committed to the preservation of peace, security and stability and the enhancement of prosperity in our region.
It is in Australia's national interest for Japan to play a positive, active and innovative role in world affairs.
Our partnership stands on the twin pillars of long-standing economic links, and growing security and defence cooperation.
Our trade and investment ties were founded on wool and subsequently on beef and petroleum resources.
By the late 1980s, Australia had established itself as a major supplier of energy, and resources and agricultural products to Japan.
In turn we were buying electronic consumer goods and cars from Japan in unprecedented numbers.
As a result of these exchanges, two way merchandise trade with Japan has doubled in value in the past 20 years.
The complementary nature of our economies has helped the relationship flourish. For more than 40 years, Japan has been Australia's key export market and a reliable and stable customer for Australian goods and services. Japanese investment, which has played such a vital role in the development of many of Australia's export industries, continues to underpin Australia's prosperity.
As our economic relationship has evolved, so too have our defence and security ties, albeit more recently.
We have a framework for security cooperation second only to that which Japan shares with the United States. It builds on historical cooperation extending back to the First World War when the Imperial Japanese Navy dispatched a cruiser, the Ibuki, to escort an Australian troop convoy from Perth to the Suez Canal.
I am in Japan for the third Australia-Japan Joint Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations, the first formal 2+2 Foreign and Defence Strategic Dialogue that Australia entered into in Asia.
The 2+2 dialogue reflects our shared perspectives of regional and global security, as well as our shared values.
At yesterday's 2+2 meeting, Ministers took a vital step toward further improving bilateral security cooperation by signing an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, the ACSA, which will enable logistics support between Australian and Japanese forces cooperating in international operations, such as peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
We are proud that Australia has become only the second country, after the United States, to have concluded such an agreement with Japan.
The agreement is a testament to the increasing strength, depth and trust that marks our security cooperation.
It will enable us to deliver an expanded range of activities provided for in the 2007 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation.
Reinforcing these critical twin pillars of our relationship are ever-expanding cultural and people-to-people links.
There are more than 100 sister City relationships between Australian and Japanese cities. All Australian States have sister State relationships with Japanese prefectures. There are some 650 sister school relationships between our two countries. The number of Japanese enrolments in Australian educational institutions in 2009 numbered more than 12,500.
A Partnership For the Future
If we are to be more imaginative and creative in our diplomacy, the challenge now is how we can work more closely, in an expanded partnership.
We start from a very firm foundation.
We began 20 years ago with collaboration that has shaped the growth of our region. In 1989, under then Prime Ministers Bob Hawke and Toshiki Kaifu, our Governments worked closely together to create an Asia Pacific regional grouping to promote multilateral discussion on issues of trade and investment. These discussions led to APEC.
We remain close partners in APEC and continue to work closely with Japan to progress regional economic integration in the Asia Pacific.
We are delighted that Japan will host this year's APEC Leaders' meeting in Yokohama, which will consider important issues for our region, including food security.
The Leaders meeting has been essential to delivering APEC's goals , and continues to be on important annual event in the region. Just as we collaborated on the formation of APEC, so we worked together on the emergence and subsequent work of regional bodies such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit.
At a time of increasing regional challenges we now need to enhance the capacity of regional institutions to deal with the full range of challenges and opportunities of a globalised world.
We need to do this in part by strengthening the mandate of key regional institutions, such as the East Asia Summit. We need to continue encouraging debate on the regional architecture we need for the future.
Prime Minister Rudd's Asia Pacific community initiative and Prime Minister Hatoyama's East Asia Community initiative have both contributed to this debate and to the emerging consensus on the need for enhanced architecture.
At the heart of Australian and Japanese thinking is the recognition that as our region fast becomes the engine of global economic growth, regional integration requires foresight, planning and institution-based conduct.
Australia has welcomed the decision by ASEAN leaders at their Hanoi Summit in April to encourage the United States and Russia to deepen their engagement in evolving regional architecture.
While the countries of the region will need to settle the final form of regional architecture, the ASEAN Summit outcome offers a critical step forward.
Australia and Japan will continue to have important discussions on regional architecture.
We have also taken steps in other areas where close collaboration will help shape our region's future.
Our recent efforts together on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation have shown that we can achieve a great deal by working together. Australia and Japan jointly established the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament in 2008.
The Commission - chaired by Ms Yoriko Kawaguchi, a former Japanese Environment Minister and Foreign Minister, and Mr Gareth Evans, a former Australian Foreign Minister, has helped reinvigorate global efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to seek a recommitment to the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapons-free world.
When I participated in a Commission presentation in New York this month at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference I was struck by the commitment the Co-Chairs had made in delivering this enduring contribution towards achieving the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
Australia and Japan made a joint presentation to the NPT Review Conference, and yesterday evening I discussed with Foreign Minister Okada how we might do further work together in this field.
Reinforcing the twin pillars
As we look to new areas of cooperation, we cannot neglect the twin pillars of our relationship. They are the bedrock of our relationship, and remain crucial for the long-term prosperity and security of our region.
Japan will remain one of Australia's largest export markets for many years to come. That is clearly good for Japan as well as good for Australia. That trade is clearly a mutual positive.
For example, Australia is also one of Japan's three most important suppliers of agricultural products. I am delighted that Japanese consumers are drinking beer made with Australian barley; eating soba made from Tasmanian buckwheat, and high quality "Aussie beef" as well as cooking this food and lighting and heating their homes with energy generated from Australian resources.
Australia's stable political, business and investment environment makes it a critical supplier to Japan of quality, clean and safe food products, as well as energy and mineral resources.
The bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement or Free Trade Agreement currently being negotiated between our two countries has the potential to take our relationship to a new level.
Australia depends on the vibrancy of Japan's economy for its own prosperity. The reform of sectors of the Japanese economy required for a comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement would ensure the sustained strength of the Japanese economy and be to both countries' benefit.
Security Ties Into the Future
On the future of defence and security cooperation, Australia sees the conclusion of the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement as a new beginning.
It should mark the beginning of a new phase of more frequent, practical and ambitious bilateral security cooperation between Australia and Japan.
This new Agreement means that, in the future, together we could provide better assistance in disasters through, for example, Australian C-17 aircraft providing airlift support to transport Japanese personnel to disaster zones.
It will provide new opportunities to support each other's efforts in international peace-building and stabilisation operations, for example, through Japanese personnel providing supplies and equipment to Australian personnel working on the same operation.
We see many opportunities and we look forward to putting the agreement into practical effect so that together we can contribute to the welfare of our region.
We look forward to progress in negotiations on a proper legal framework to secure shared classified information. This will be crucial for the expansion of defence and security cooperation.
Just as we will have new opportunities to work together on security, disaster management and peace-keeping, so too is there a role for greater collaboration on reform of the United Nations. Australia is a consistent supporter of Japan's candidacies across the United Nations system. We supported Japan's non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council. We have long supported Japan's elevation to permanent membership of a reformed United Nations Security Council.
Australia is itself seeking election to the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the 2013-14 term. We would bring to that role a wealth of experience in peace-keeping, conflict prevention and peace-building.
As we move to new areas of cooperation and even closer collaboration, we know that we are likely to discover issues over which we have a difference of opinion. This is to be expected.
Australia and Japan disagree on the issue of whaling. Both Australia and Japan are determined that this one area of disagreement will not adversely affect our broader relationship.
Conclusion
The strong, enduring bond that Australia and Japan have built over the course of the 20th century has placed us in a uniquely strong position to work together on the challenges of the 21st Century.
We have established a great friendship, and forged a strong partnership. The challenge is to take these foundations and build on them and together to play a positive, more active and innovative role in regional and global affairs.
Thank you.