E&OE
26 September 2008
Press conference - United Nations General Assembly, New York
Stephen Smith: Well, a number of things. Firstly, this morning I attended the first meeting of the Friends of the Democratic Pakistan, which we described at the course of the meeting. It was chaired by President Zardari.
The meeting was co-sponsored by the US, the UK, and the UAE. This was very significant. Pakistan is under considerable pressure from extremism and terrorism. We all expressed our condolences to the President for the cowardly attack on the Marriott Hotel.
As you know, for some time, I have been making the point that the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan is very important to our efforts in Afghanistan. But it has become quite clear in more recent times that this is not the only area where Pakistan faces a significant problem.
The statement by the meeting has been issued, as has the international commitment to support Pakistan during this difficult time. Not just so far as security threats are concerned, but also the economic and social challenges that Pakistan faces.
In this respect, I have announced today that we will provide Pakistan with $3 million dollars worth of humanitarian assistance, for both people displaced in the border area as a result of violence, but also for people adversely affected by recent floods. $2 million of that will go through the UN program, and another million through the World Food Program.
Secondly, I’m about to go to a Ministerial Meeting of the Rights of Children and Protection of Children from being abused by their involvement in armed conflict. The ministerial meeting will be chaired by France, and I’m announcing at the meeting an endorsement of the so-called Paris principles, which seek to protect children from their involvement and their abuse and use in armed conflict. I’m also announcing $200,000 to UNICEF, to further promote UNICEF’S work in this area.
Yesterday, I attended a Ministerial-level meeting of the interfaith dialogue, which was convened by the Philippines. I indicated to the Interfaith Dialogue that Australia wanted to increase its involvement in the Ministerial dialogue at UN level. We are currently an observer to the Ministerial dialogue. I indicated yesterday Australia’s intention to seek full membership of the dialogue, with a view to attending next year’s UNGA Ministerial Interfaith Dialogue as a full member.
We of course work very closely with the Philippines, Indonesia and New Zealand in the regional Interfaith Dialogue, and we see this as a very important process of promoting tolerance and respect for different cultures and for different religious views.
In the course of the Friends of Pakistan meeting, I had the opportunity, for the first occasion, of speaking to the new Japanese Foreign Minister Nakasone. We had a good conversation. I underlined the long and enduring economic, strategic and security partnership between Australia and Japan, and indicated my desire to work closely with him. This of course followed on from yesterday’s meeting between the two Prime Ministers.
I’m happy to respond to your questions on those or other questions.
Journalist: On the Security Council lobbying front, can you just give us a run down of who you spoke with and what sort of encouragement or otherwise did you receive? And did you have any conversations with the Middle East Representatives?
Smith: Well firstly, I’ve made it clear I’m not proposing to go though a running commentary of who may or may not be supporting it, and in any event elections are four years off.
I’ve had a lot of formal bi-lateral meetings and also ministerial contact. And of course in the course of these meetings, I’ve raised our Security Council candidature for 2013-14.
I think it’s fair to say the response has been encouraging, but it’s a lot of hard work to convert a good support into a hard vote, and that’s what the next 4 years will be about so far as that campaign in concerned.
I’ve had a lot of meetings with Member States from the Middle East. I had a formal meeting with the Secretary General of the Arab League. Also yesterday, I had a formal meeting with the Troika from the Gulf Co-operation Council, so I’ve had a range of conversations with Middle Eastern countries.
I’ve indicated that as a general proposition, Australia would like to enhance its engagement in the Middle East, and I made this point in particular to the Gulf Co-operation Council Troika.
And I’ve also met widely with counterparts from Africa and South and Latin America, and underlined the point I made on Monday, that Australia needs to enhance its engagement with Africa, and the same in my view is true of South America and Latin America.
Journalist: In recent days, the Prime Minister (and possibly yourself, I’m not sure) made the observation that things that the Prime Minister learnt from the Head of Treasury and the Head of the Federal Reserve back when the Prime Minister previously visited in March informed the budget strategy in terms of (inaudible) Australia’s economy. Is that likely to be the case from this trip, that down the track we will learn the benefits that come from this sort of consultation, that at the moment are not tangible?
Smith: Obviously an area like that, I will leave the detail to Mr Rudd and Mr Swan.
But the Prime Minister and the Treasurer have for some time been saying for that we need to be very careful about international economic circumstances, with both declining economic growth internationally and also obviously in more recent days, intense pressure on international financial systems. But whenever you have international conversations, whether it’s about financial services or international economies, whether it’s about climate change, or whether it’s about other international community challenges, you always benefit from that.
And that’s why I robustly, as the Prime Minister did, defend any criticism that was made of him of by his attendance here. This week is traditionally called ‘Leader’s Week’. That’s because Heads of Government, Heads of State, Prime Ministers and Presidents come, and you always benefit from a conversation with your colleagues, as I have benefited from conversations with my Foreign Ministerial colleagues.
I was here for the first occasion as Foreign Minister in January, and I had conversations from which I benefited from about the United Nations and our alliance relationship with the United States. But also I had conversations with people about the United States economy and international economy and that certainly benefited me. So all of these things help advance our national interest, including our national economic interest.
Journalist: Well people in Australia might argue well if that is the case, where were those leaders when the Prime Minister was speaking in the General Assembly last night? I mean, the room was ¾ empty. What is the value of that kind of contribution if nobody listens?
Smith: Well, everyone listens. In the end, people may not be actually in the room, but in the end, nation states pay attention to what you say and do. And all member states will be poring over the Prime Minister’s speech, as they pore over everyone else’s speech.
From time to time the General Assembly is full, and from time to time it is empty. Sometimes the GA reminds me of an ALP National Conference. Or the Parliament itself.
Journalist: I was wondering if you had any updates on North Korea? Have you been involved in any of the discussions?
Smith: No, I haven’t.
In the course of my ministerial conversations, I’ve had conversations about North Korea. I haven’t had a briefing today or an update today on North Korea. We strongly support the actions of the [Six Party talks] so far as North Korea’s nuclear involvement is concerned. We’ve given our full support to that process.
Journalist: So you don’t know what the updates have been at the UN in relation … (inaudible)
Smith: I made the point earlier in the week that we are very concerned by the most recent developments. All I’m saying is that I haven’t been updated.
I haven’t had an update today or had a conversation today that goes to North Korea.
But we remain very concerned about North Korea. I echo the concern of the IAEA in the course of the week. We continue to urge the international community and the diplomats to put pressure on North Korea to be open and honest and upfront about its nuclear program and to accede to the verification measures that have been asked of it.
Journalist: Mr Rudd’s speech laid heavy emphasis on the need for multi-lateral efforts to improve the regulatory environment internationally. It seemed he shifted the focus more emphatically to address those issues after he got here. The speech was a work in progress, as I understand it. Does that indicate that perhaps he found things more alarming when he got here than they looked as if they were from Canberra?
Smith: The Prime Minister made the point before he left Australia that he was very concerned about the developing international financial regulatory arrangements, and that was the key focus of his visit.
I think it’s true to say that certainly he had a number of conversations with Gordon Brown and the final details of the proposal were very much edified by the conversation between the British Prime Minister and Mr Rudd.
I don’t know if we would categorise it as being any more alarmed by the circumstance. Those circumstances were pretty clear and obvious last week.
I think our conversations with the British certainly edified and helped construct the final proposal.
Journalist: Did you participate in those discussions?
Smith: No, I was doing other work.
Obviously I’ve been briefed and been made aware of them but they were essentially handled direct from Prime Minster to Prime Minister, and it certainly helped the eventual architecture of the proposal that emerged in the Prime Minster’s speech yesterday, or last night.
Journalist: This has been a very busy week for all of us, and I understand that you met with 20-something people in the first 24 hours. How many meetings have you actually had this week?
Smith: I think it’s unwise to try and delineate how many meetings… I’ve had a lot of meetings.
We have formal bi-laterals where there is a previously agreed time to sit down and do a formal bilateral, but there’s also what I’ve described as “pull asides”, where you see a colleague and you have a brief conversation. I’ve had a lot of that because this is my first time here as Foreign Minister and I’ve been introducing myself to as many of my colleagues as I have.
But I’ve had a large number of formal bi-lateral meetings and I’ve done my best to introduce myself to as many of my colleagues as I can.
It’s been a long week, a week of hard work, but it’s been good productive work, and it’s certainly helped me, and I think it has been advancing our national interests just as the Prime Minister’s efforts have been advancing our national interests.
Journalist: We’ve got a domestic issue back home – Malcolm Turnbull and Julia Gillard have admitted they smoked pot in their wild younger days.
Smith: I’m never drawn in on these matters.
Journalist: You mentioned that ... (inaudible) Africa. Africa is obviously a country that for the most part, with some exceptions, (inaudible) as far as the MDG’s are concerned. There is concern about the international financial crisis having a further potential for negative effect. Given the presidential candidates’ views on free trade which differ a little bit, do you have any messages for America on the issues of free trade and MDG’s generally?
Smith: I have no messages to the candidates. I’m not proposing to inveigle myself in that. We will simply wait until the United States democratic process emerges with a new President, a new administration, and we will deal happily with whoever emerges in that process.
The Australian Government has a very strong view that trade liberalisation and openness is unambiguously in not just Australia’s interest, but in the world’s interest.
We have a large development assistance program and we’re committed to help achieving the Millennium Development Goals. But one of the best forms of development assistance is economic growth. Of course, we’re concerned that slowing of economic growth internationally and the possible adverse consequences of the financial regulatory matters will see reduced economic growth. That would be a bad thing.
We were very pleased to hear the Secretary General, in his report that started the debate this week, indicate he will convene a high level summit in 2010 to review where the MDG’s are.
The African experience is not uniform. There is good progress in some areas and not so good progress in others. One of the reasons that we want to increase our engagement in Africa is we think we can do a lot to help Africa meet its Millennium Development Goals.
One of the things which of course is a problem in Africa is food and food security. Whilst we have been a generous international citizen in terms of food aid, we also have a first class agricultural research arm and we think this can be utilised in partnership with developing and developed countries to increase yield, to apply greater productive capacity to agricultural pursuits.
Journalist: Do you have any further comments on the way this meeting has progressed or otherwise the MDG agenda? Also, I know you’re the former shadow minister for education – maybe you can comment more specifically on that in relation to education issues.
Smith: There are very clear education goals in the MDG’s, in Africa. There is some improvement in some nation states and not much improvement in others. We remain committed to the goals.
The Prime Minister and I have a very strong view that education is one of the best means of development assistance and we reflect this in Indonesia where, for example, we’re helping to build 2,000 schools. But we also reflect it with scholarships for basic education and for higher education.
But we remain committed to helping the international community to helping achieve the goals, which is why we committed ourselves to increasing our development assistance to 0.5% of GNI by 2015.
Journalist: And so the meeting generally in terms of progressing the MDG agenda, do you think it’s achieved its aim?
Smith: I think every little bit helps. The key outcome so far as MDG’s at UNGA was concerned was the Secretary General indicating a high level conference in 2010 Conference, which was the half way review period. That’s a very good chance for the international community to just take stock formally of where we are with the MDG’s.
Journalist: Given the Australia and the US are such good friends and such a strong allies, did the McCain or Sarah Palin campaigns approach Australia about lining up a possible meeting with Kevin Rudd this week?
Smith: Well, certainly not with me. I’m not aware with the Prime Minister, but in the normal course of events, we wouldn’t normally expect that.
I know that the Prime Minister has spoken both to Senator Obama and to Senator McCain but as I say, at this point in the cycle, we tend not to inveigle ourselves but to wait until the American system throws up a new administration which we will work with very happily, whatever the outcome of the election.
Journalist: Do we have confidence in America’s ability to manage the global economic downturn, and some would say ‘crisis,’ during this lame duck period?
Smith: Well I haven’t seen any slackening by the Administration. We welcome in general terms the $700 billion dollar package. It’s not every day you see a $700 billion package. That was an intervention we welcomed, because the consequences of no intervention would be completely catastrophic. People are having their arguments in the Congress about some of the detail, but in general terms, we welcome it.
I haven’t detected any slackening in the Administration in economic areas or other areas.
Good to see you all.
[Ends]
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