Interview - NHK, Tokyo

INTERVIEWER: What do you expect of the trilateral strategic discussion, TSD, tomorrow?

STEPHEN SMITH: I am very much looking forward to it. The trilateral strategic discussion between Australia, Japan and United States is very important to Australia, very important to Japan and, we think, very important to our region. It keeps Australia, the United States and Japan involved in our region and we think that’s a very, very good thing.

INTERVIEWER: And the second one is how the conference meeting with Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, was.

SMITH: Well, I’ve just come from a very productive meeting with the Secretary of State and raised with the Secretary of State a number of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Australia, some regional, some global. We spoke about our interest in Afghanistan and the need to very carefully assess movements across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. We also spoke about North Korea and the need for a good outcome so far as the North Korean nuclear issue is concerned. We spoke at length about Zimbabwe and the need for the brutal Mugabe regime to accept the will of the Zimbabwe people and Australia’s preference for Mr Mugabe to simply walk off the stage, to allow an outcome in Zimbabwe which respects human rights and respects the wishes of the Zimbabwe people.

INTERVIEWER: Right now you mentioned DPRK issues. We Japanese are all concerned about it. DPRK declaration is likely to be soon. Could you please provide more detail.

SMITH: I think everyone is waiting for the North Korean declaration and we hope that declaration is a genuine declaration which disavows their nuclear intentions. It’s very important that that occurs for stability in the Korean Peninsula, but also for stability in North Asia. So we are all waiting to carefully examine that declaration and we hope that it is a genuine declaration which enables progress to be made.

INTERVIEWER: Was there any mention about this declaration from Rice?

SMITH: The Secretary of State indicated that the United States was expecting a declaration in the very near future. And, like everyone else, was very keen to carefully examine the details of the declaration.

INTERVIEWER: The last question. We are particularly concerned about abduction issues by North Korea. Were there any remarks from Rice?

SMITH: Both Australia and the United States understand the abduction issue. Australia has made its view about the terrible abduction issue very clear both to North Korea in terms of seeking to rectify on the abduction issue and also on a number of occasions we have made it very clear to Japan that we are very, very supportive of Japanese efforts to seek to resolve the terrible abduction issue. So yes, we had a conversation about that issue and the Australian sympathy is very much with Japan in what has been a very difficult and terrible issue for Japan. We expect North Korea to respond in a way which reflects the very difficult nature of this issue for Japan.

INTERVIEWER: Thank you so much.

Media Inquiries: Foreign Minister's office (02) 6277 7500