E&OE
27 October 2008
Joint media conference with The Hon. Markos Kyprianou, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cyprus
STEPHEN SMITH: Minister, thank you very much. Thank you for your first invitation to visit Cyprus and for your warm hospitality and for our very productive meeting, and I was pleased to follow on our meeting in New York with this visit to Cyprus and very soon after that. Can I firstly say that Australia and Cyprus have long standing warm, friendly relationships. This is largely a result of Australia having a very strong and very active Cypriot community. There are about a hundred thousand first or second generation Cypriots who live in Australia, and over the years this has seen warm bilateral relations between our two countries.
As a consequence of those people-to-people links, from the first moment Australia has been strong supporters of the peace process and the settlement process so far as Cyprus is concerned. Australia has had officers, currently Australian Federal Police officers, in the United Nations peacekeeping force from the first moment and currently we have fifteen police officers assisting on the peace process, on the peace settlement, and so I’m very pleased to be here, to reflect those warm relationships and also to get first hand from the Foreign Minister and subsequently from the President detailed up-to-date advice on the progress of the peace and settlement and unification process.
The Minister makes a very important point, which is not only do Cyprus and Australia have a very strong bilateral relationship, we also have a relationship which is as a result of Cyprus being part of the European Union. As France holds the current Presidency of the European Union, later this week in France, I will launch with French Foreign Minister Kouchner, an Australia-European Union Partnership Framework Agreement. This agreement will see Australia become much more engaged and involved in Europe, and Cyprus has been very supportive of Australia in this respect and very supportive of carving out of the agreement between Australia and the European Union and supportive of Australia’s greater involvement with the Europeans themselves. As a single entity the European Union is the single largest source of foreign capital investment in Australia, so it is very significant. Not just in a historical sense but also in a trade, economic and investment sense.
As the Minister indicated, I was very pleased to invite the Minister to Australia for a visit, not just to continue the warm bilateral relations between our two countries and also to get a further update on the settlement process, but also to enable the Minister to meet with the Australian Cypriot community who are always very keen to see leaders from Cyprus visit Australia. It’s been too long since there has been an Australian Foreign Minister in Cyprus and it’s been too long since there has been a Cypriot Foreign Minister in Australia. This is the first occasion of a visit by an Australian Foreign Minister to Cyprus since 1994. And so I’m very pleased, to use an Australian expression, to have broken that drought, and after a long period of time we’ve made a visit and I am very pleased personally that I was able to do so at the Minister’s invitation. So Minister, thank you very much for your warm and hospitable welcome and remarks and thank you for our productive exchange, which has helped to appraise Australia of the progress in the peace process and the settlement talks as far Cyprus is concerned.
QUESTION: Does Australia have any influence with Turkey to persuade Turkey to (inaudible) Cyprus land with her troops?
SMITH: Australia’s attitude, as the Minister has put it, to the Cyprus problem is that we very strongly support the UN-sponsored peace process. We very strongly support the joint declaration made by the two leaders on the 23rd of May, to set the scene for the current negotiations for the current talks.
Whilst it is a matter between the two leaders of the two communities to agree about the outcome, Australia’s role is to say to Cyprus that we strongly support the peace process, we strongly support the United Nations resolutions, we strongly support the sentiment with which the two leaders have embarked upon on this reinvigorated process. We play our part not just by making a contribution to the peacekeeping force, but also play our part in the international community arguing that it’s in Cyprus’ interest for the issue to be resolved, it’s in Europe’s interest for the issue to be resolved, and it’s in the international community’s interest for the issue to be resolved. It’s certainly in Australia’s interest because of the large Cypriot community that we have in Australia who are intensely interested in progress and seeing progress occur.
Australia has a good bilateral relationship with Turkey, and whilst it’s not our role to tell Turkey what attitude it should adopt, certainly as part of our bilateral relationship we will discuss with Turkey their attitude and view to this issue. Generally Australia has been a strong supporter in the United Nations of a resolution of this issue. In the end the resolution will only be a long term enduring resolution if it’s agreed to between the two communities, and it’s in that context that only the two communities can agree about the detail of any settlement or resettlement, any unification or reunification.
[Ends]
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