E&OE
10 February 2009
Joint Press Conference with Foreign Minister for Portugal, Luis Amado.
STEPHEN SMITH: Can I again officially welcome Foreign Minister Luis Amado, Foreign Minister of Portugal, to Australia.
It's not Luis' first visit to Australia but it is his first visit as Foreign Minister, and it's the first visit by a minister of the Socrates Government to Australia.
And Minister, we very much appreciate your attendance in Australia.
Can I start firstly by thanking you very much for your expressions of condolence and regard for the bushfire victims and their families. As we discussed, this has been our worst natural disaster, proportions which we never previously thought we would contemplate.
As we also discussed, of course, because of, in some respects, comparable Mediterranean climates, Portugal itself has in the past been subject to bushfires, but just as in Australia's case, none on this scale in terms of loss of human life. So we very much appreciate the sentiments and the expressions that you indicated to us in the course of our bilateral meeting.
And can I also make this point, that I've received and the Government has received expressions of condolence and support from very many of our friends and neighbours throughout the world, and that is very gratefully appreciated by the Government and by the people of Australia.
We've also received offers of support and assistance, and they are being assessed by the Emergency Management Authority. But that is gratefully appreciated by the Government.
Can I say that we warmly welcome Foreign Minister Amado to Australia. Australia and Portugal have a warm, bilateral relationship. Australia, as you know, has sought over the last 12 months or so to enhance its engagement with Europe and the European Union, and that saw last year the formalisation of an Australia-EU Partnership Framework Agreement, which sets the modern day relationship between Australia and Europe.
And whilst it was before the current Government's time, Australian officials in the previous Government were very warmly appreciative of Portugal's efforts and cooperation with Australia when Portugal chaired the European Union as President in the first half of 2007.
There are good trade and investment relations between Australia, but there are also very good people-to-people contacts.
The Minister comes from the island of Madeira, and I was pleased to inform him that in Fremantle in my own state of Western Australia, we have a very strong Portuguese fishing community and they come from Madeira. So I've told the Foreign Minister on his next to Australia, if he visits Fremantle, he'll be a hero of the Portuguese community in Fremantle.
So there are very good people-to-people exchanges and contacts as well.
Of course, importantly, we share a very important interest in East Timor, in Timor-Leste, and this was part of our discussion as well. Australia, Portugal, and Indonesia, are the countries of the world which are most interested in and most concerned about Timor's development as a viable, independent nation state.
Australia and Portugal are the two largest development assistance donors so far as East Timor is concerned, and we have and want to in the future work very closely in that respect.
As some of you might know, East Timorese President Ramos Horta was due to conduct a head of state visit to Australia, and of course this week, that has regrettably been deferred as a consequence of the bushfires.
But Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa was already in Australia. I met with him earlier this morning, and this evening the three foreign ministers will have a trilateral meeting over dinner, reflecting the importance of the Australia-Portugal-East Timorese relationship. We will discuss the joint endeavour so far as East Timor is concerned.
Australia and Portugal are also committed multilateralists and committed regionalists, and we spoke about our cooperation in international institutions like the United Nations, the importance of working together regionally, and the importance of Europe and Asia working closely together.
So Minister, we're very pleased to have you in Australia for your first official visit as Foreign Minister. The talks we had, which were wide-sweeping, discussing our bilateral relationship and also our interests in East Timor and other global issues, were very productive. We're looking forward to our trilateral conversation with Zacarias da Costa this evening.
The Minister, when he departs Australia, is visiting East Timor before he returns to Portugal, and so we wish you well for that bilateral discussion as well.
So Minister, I'd be pleased to invite you to make some opening remarks and then we'll happily respond to your questions.
LUIS AMADO: Thank you, Minister. I want to thank the opportunity you gave me to visit for the first time officially Australia as Foreign Minister of Portugal. And I would like to express publicly what I had the opportunity to express to ministers a couple of minutes ago, the condolences on behalf of my government to your government and to the families of those who suffered so much with this terrible tragedy that we know quite well what it means because, as you have said, in Portugal, as in all Mediterranean countries, we know what that means.
We had the opportunity to discuss important issues which are in our common agenda. We are all facing the development of this economic and financial crisis with high concern. We both agree that we need to create conditions for a multilateral approach of this situation, which is devastating our economies.
And we also identify an important point of straight cooperation in what respects the same objectives that we pursue to stabilise the situation in East Timor and create conditions for a viable and a stable state, independent state in East Timor.
So we have been working together for a long time. I expressed to Minister Stephen Smith our enthusiasm in working closely with the East Timorese authorities during the next times so that we can create conditions for a more stable country in this region.
We have been also following the situation of our community. We have an important migrant community here. In the globalisation of the economy of the world, the dynamic of relationship between societies, the fluxes of migration is certainly a point always present in our agenda.
We appreciate very much the way the Australian authorities are dealing with the situation of our nationals in your country, and we intend also to go on with our straight political dialogue in what respects the deepening of relationship between European Union and Australia.
I mean, we were - we are very much engaged in contributing to a more relevant role of European Union in the new international order and certainly the relationship between European Union and Australia, such an important country in one of the most dynamic regions of the world will be fundamental also for the assertiveness of the European Union as an important actor in the future of the global system.
So thank you once again for the opportunity you gave me to be with you today. I am looking forward to our trilateral discussion tonight, thank you.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, thanks very much, Minister. Can we have questions related to the bilateral relationship first and then I am happy to respond to other issues.
QUESTION: Well, regarding East Timor, the international crisis group has put out a report today saying that while the security situation has improved the army still remains unreformed and increasingly unaccountable, did you discuss at all how Australia and Portugal can encourage East Timor along the road of a better situation and improve things with the army and take away this tension that sort of remains underlying in East Timor.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I'll go first and then invite minister to follow. Two responses; firstly, we spoke - Minister Amado and I about the improvement in the East Timorese security situation since the terrible attempts on the lives of the President and the Prime Minister effectively 12 months ago.
I think we also agreed that whilst we regard that situation of having stabilised and improved we're dealing with what is potentially an ongoing fragile security situation and that's why, in our view or in Australia's view, there is an ongoing need for the United Nation's presence, there's also an ongoing need for the presence of internationalisation - international stabilisation force, but there's also very importantly, and this is where Australia and Portugal both play a shared role for the capacity building of East Timor's own institutions, particularly training of police, training of military.
At some point in the cycle, East Timor itself, to use Minister Amado's phrase, has to be an independent stable and viable nation state. In the end, East Timor's own institutions, police and military need to be able to manage these affairs and that's why so much of the capacity-building or development assistance that Australia and Portugal do is aimed at enhancing these capacities, so far as East Timor is concerned.
In my earlier conversation with East Timorese Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa, I spoke in similar terms about the need for ongoing United Nations presence, the need for ongoing stabilisation force, to continue its presence, our commitment to ongoing capacity building and without putting words into Zacarias da Costa's mouth, I think there's a shared view that an ongoing presence of the United Nations' international stabilisation force is warranted.
But we do need to continue our effort so far as devolving responsibility to East Timor itself is concerned and you might recall that towards the end of last year the Australian contribution to the International Stabilisation Force was reduced by about 60 to 80 officers in conjunction with other members of the stabilisation force and East Timor because we came to a conclusion that enhanced capacity of East Timor's instructions was able to handle that load. Luis?
LUIS AMADO: I fully agree with you, Stephen. I just would like to stress that we all understand that it takes some time to build up capacity institutions, mainly in those domains you mentioned is really quite demanding and so what I can say is that's absolutely indispensable that main partners as Portugal and Australia are in this process can cooperate much more with the Timorese authorities so that we can create those conditions as soon as possible but it takes time, it's not easy to see a new estate with the strong institutions and probably we were too optimistic a couple of years ago and we didn't pay the attention probably we should have paid to the importance of the presence of the international community in assisting this process.
In the context of this visit what I really would like to stress is the strong, strategic and political commitment of both Portugal and Australia to work together in assisting with responsibility this process which is vital for the viability of the new East Timorese state to have strong institutions in those domains of defence and securities, the main condition to create this viability for the East Timorese state.
QUESTION: Mr Amado, are you able to explain if there are any new programs or plans that you might be offering East Timor [indistinct] Portugal while you're there?
LUIS AMADO: On behalf?
QUESTION: On behalf of Portugal.
LUIS AMADO: We have the same programs we been implementing for a long time from the very beginning. It depends certainly of the demanding of the East Timorese authorities.
We are very much committed to the ownership of this process by the East Timorese authorities and the sectors where we have been working from the very beginning are the same, we don't have any new program.
We are very much committed with United Nations International Force on the security. We are very much committed to education and to some social assistance and in some institutional capacity sectors we are closely working with other partners like Australia in creating conditions for, as I've said, the process, the patient and long process of capacity building of East Timor.
QUESTION: How concerned or optimistic are you about the future of East Timor now, a year after the violence?
LUIS AMADO: I think it's still fragile as Stephen has mentioned, but we need to consider, really quite disruptive process that East Timorese society has known in the last decades.
So we need to be patient and we need to work, as I've said, in a strategic way with East Timorese authorities but with a strong responsibility of all the partners of European Union of East Timorese authorities so that we can create conditions for a very cooperative policy towards East Timor.
I assume that our bilateral cooperation between Portugal and Australia is an example of how we need to work, not to leave room for developments on the ground that are not compatible with a strong commitment of working together to assist the new institutions of a new state with the vulnerabilities that we can identify.
STEPHEN SMITH: And our response is the same. We, in terms of our development systems, are currently going through what we describe as a country review which is a regular review, an update of the development assistance to a particular country in conjunction with East Timorese officials.
We expect that to be close to fruition or completion in the course of April/May of this year. But our priorities and our emphasis will continue to be the same - development assistance aimed at capacity building, whether that is police or military training on the one hand or education and training, trying to provide social and economic opportunities on the other.
So again we share this same view that the priority for us is to assist in the capacity building. And I have to say whilst on the one hand I'm optimistic given where we were almost 12 months ago the word that Portugal and Australia and East Timor itself continues to use is 'fragile', and we need to be ever wary of that.
QUESTION: Minister Smith [Indistinct] about the meeting [Indistinct] with the Chinese…
STEPHEN SMITH: The human rights dialogue?
QUESTION: Yes, human rights.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well the formal dialogue is occurring yesterday and today. I understand that the two dialogue delegations will have a formal press briefing later this afternoon but I had a meeting yesterday with the head of the Chinese delegation, Assistant Minister Liu. It was a good meeting where in addition to human rights dialogue matters we traversed a number of general aspects of the bilateral relationship between Australia and China.
I underlined, as I have in the past with my counterpart Foreign Minister Yang, the importance of the human rights dialogue to Australia, the array of human rights issues that Australia has raised with China in the past will be dealt with by the dialogue in the course of today and yesterday. I expressed my disappointment that the Chinese delegation had not agreed to the presence of the Australian Tibet Council at the reception for NGOs and interested parties.
I regard that as an unfortunate backward step, but I do make the point, as Assistant Minister Liu and the Chinese delegation and I have made respectively to each other, that at this human rights dialogue we see the largest number of Australian NGOs attending both the reception and the accompanying meetings and discussions.
Can I also make the point that I welcome very much the fact that last night China for the first time underwent what is known as a periodic review through the United Nations Human Rights Council, this is the first occasion that China has agreed to submit itself to a human rights periodic review. Australia was present and we raised the same human rights issues that Australia has raised both privately and publicly with China over the recent period.
QUESTION: Human rights groups have been critical of this secrecy that surrounds these talks. Is there any possibility of opening it up to public scrutiny, telling the Australian people what exactly are the issues you're raising with the Chinese?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well as I…
QUESTION: If that doesn't happen is there any value to them?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well we value the dialogue very much, that's the first point. Secondly I've seen the suggestion by some that the human rights dialogue that we conduct with China is allegedly secret. My memory is that it was made public that we were conducting a dialogue a human rights dialogue in Australia in 2004 and 2006. I recall I put out a press release about it and had a meeting which was open to the media to observe with the leader of the delegation, and the two delegations at the conclusion of two days of talks will hold a press briefing.
So I wouldn't characterise or categorise the human rights dialogue as being secret.
It is the case that whilst China has made some substantial progress so far as human rights is concerned over the last two or three decades there are substantial ongoing concerns that Australia and the international community has. These are raised privately with China in terms of officials and in terms of bilateral conversations that either I have with my counterparts or the Prime Minister has with the Chinese leadership. But they're also raised publicly and I don't think there's any better demonstration of human rights issues being raised publicly than the Prime Minister raising the issue of Tibet at the Beijing University in one of his trips last year to China.
QUESTION: At that review in Europe the reports coming out suggested that there was a great deal of denial from China that there were many issues with their human rights record. Now how effective are any of those sort of discussion while China denies that it has a problem?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well two points: Firstly I think on any objective measure there has been progress over recent decades. Secondly on any objective measure the international community regards many outstanding issues where progress needs to be made. Thirdly I think it is significant and a positive development that China has, for the first occasion, undertaken a periodic review before the United Nations Human Rights Council. I haven't had the opportunity of examining the transcript but I think it's important that these issues are raised on a regular basis and it's important that the Chinese response is open to scrutiny by the international community, and that's occurring.
QUESTION: Before the periodic review China indicated that it didn't want to discuss Tibet because it saw that as a political issue not a human rights issue. Does Australia think that Tibetan human rights are inseparable and those sort of issues should be discussed?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well I made the point to the leader of the Chinese delegation yesterday Minister Liu that Australia regarded Tibet as an important human rights issue. We respect China's territorial sovereignty and integrity over Tibet but we believe that Tibet is a serious human rights issue and needs to be treated as such. I made that point to the leader of the Chinese delegation yesterday and I've made that point privately and publicly in the past, as has the Prime Minister.
QUESTION: You said that China has made progress over the last decade but what about over the last year or so? I mean how do you think China stands now in relation to [Indistinct]
STEPHEN SMITH: There are a lot of outstanding human rights issues that need to be addressed by China, and Tibet is one of those and Tibet has been the issue in the last 12 months which has obviously been the one most open to public attention.
QUESTION: But what other issues [Indistinct]
STEPHEN SMITH: Religious freedom I mentioned yesterday, and that of course will be the subject of discussion in the human rights dialogue itself, and that was raised by Australia at the periodic review last night. The question of capital punishment, the question of media scrutiny and media freedom, an array of human rights issues raised either by the Australian delegation in Canberra over the last two days or by Australian officials at the periodic review or by Australian ministers, Prime Ministers and officials on a regular basis when contact is had with Chinese ministers or officials.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, the issue of the - the Rohingya who were found off Indonesia, I know Australia's made a few representations to Thailand about it. Where does that stand? And I know Australia said that it's pleased that the Thai authorities are reviewing the situation. But, I mean, it's a fairly horrific story that these people have been telling. Have you made any efforts to speak to your Thai [indistinct]?
STEPHEN SMITH: Representations have been made by officials in Thailand, including by our Ambassador. We're not in the position to verify the facts one way or the other, and there have been conflicting versions of the facts. But, we've made it clear privately, and I've made it clear publicly, over the weekend, that we are gravely concerned by the reports. We've made that concern known to the Thai Government.
We welcome very much the fact that the Thai Government has indicated it's prepared to examine all the allegations, but importantly to examine those allegations in conjunction with the UNHCR, which we regard as being very important. And we will monitor very closely, and watch very closely, and continue to make representations to the Thai authorities as that investigation and examination proceeds.
QUESTION: Just on Guantanamo Bay. [Indistinct] on the weekend talked about the US asking other countries to take in prisoners. Has there been any further discussion with the US on that?
STEPHEN SMITH: There's been no request from the current US Administration on that matter and the position remains as outlined by the acting Prime Minister over the summer break and also by me.
QUESTION: Can you just clarify, Mr Smith, which countries have offered support to the firefighting efforts in Victoria?
STEPHEN SMITH: I'm not in a position to give you an up to date list because they have been coming in. But there are - there are some on the public record. New Zealand, for example, has offered assistance. So, I don't want to give you a list for fear of leaving off some countries. What I can say is that any - any offers for assistance are being considered, both by the Emergency Management Authority and also by the Victorian Government.
And for the same reason, I don't want to list the countries who have expressed their sympathy, support and their condolences. Some are on the public record, but both offers of assistance and expressions of condolences are very gratefully received by Australia.
We are lucky in the sense that we are a prosperous, well developed country and much of this we can handle by ourselves. But there may well be areas, either in terms of ongoing fighting of the fires and the aftermath, dealing with some of the investigatory matters, or rebuilding and reconstruction. There may well be areas where assistance from other nation states, in particular our neighbours like New Zealand, may well be - may well be necessary or required. These will be decisions that the Emergency Management Authority makes in conjunction with the Victorian Government.
I simply make the point that the Government and the Australian people very much appreciates the offers of assistance from whomever they've come and we certainly very much warmly appreciate the outpouring of sympathy and condolences that we've received throughout the international community and from our neighbourhood.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, on Afghanistan. We seem to have been, over the past 12 months, through the statements of yourself and various other persons, creeping, very, very incrementally, towards a situation where the prospect of sending more troops to Afghanistan was being considered. Have you had any formal request from the Americans? Or is this in fact true that it's increasingly likely [indistinct]?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I wouldn't categorise it in that respect. Firstly, we've received no request from the new United States administration for an additional contribution. The new US Administration, both through President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, have made it clear that, in the first instance, what the new US administration wants to do is to complete its review of Afghanistan, both in a military, civilian and political sense. And I think that's a very sensible thing to do.
The consistent point that the Prime Minister, the Minister for Defence and I have made has been along the following lines: that we're the largest non-NATO contributor, our contribution is nearly 1100, so far as a military contribution is concerned. We would examine a request from the United States, but that request has not yet come.
The point that the Minister for Defence has made strongly, which I underline, is we would not want to see any request for us for an increase to be regarded by others as a capacity to either stay where they were or reduce their contribution. And as we've all said over time, for the present we regard out current contribution as being about right.
I've also made the point that we are open to enhancing our civilian capacity contribution, our development assistance contribution. In a different context, just as it is true of East Timor, so it is true of Afghanistan, that this cannot just simply be a peace and security or military contribution alone. We need to enhance the state institutions of Afghanistan, we need to build their capacity, we need to engage in nation building.
And that's why, at the Afghanistan donor's conference in Paris in 2008 we substantially increased out contribution to enhance our civilian capacity building arrangements to build the capacity of Afghan institutions manage their own affairs.
QUESTION: Mr Smith, have there been any further discussions about when you might travel to Washington to meet the Secretary of State and were you disappointed that she made it to Indonesia but couldn't make it the extra four hours to [indistinct]?
STEPHEN SMITH: Well, I spoke to the Secretary of State, would be now two and a half weeks ago. It was on, I think, the Friday before Australia Day. And we have a very good discussion.
I indicated to the Secretary of State that, given the AUSMIN meeting is scheduled to be held in Washington in the course of this year, that we look to a meeting of AUSMIN, which is Foreign Minister and Secretary of State, Defence Minister and Secretary of Defence. We look forward to that occurring in Washington as soon as was practicable. And we look forward to that.
Can I say I warmly welcome the fact that the Secretary of State has chosen to travel to our region. I warmly welcome the fact she's proposing to travel to China and North Asia, to China, Japan and to the Republic of Korea. And I very much warmly welcome the fact that she has chosen to also visit Indonesia, the largest Muslim populated country in the world. I think that is a significant signal so far as our region is concerned.
I've been proceeding on the basis, at all times, that the expectation is that because AUSMIN is scheduled to be conducted in Washington that the first person - person to person contact we'll have will be a visit by me and the Defence Minister to Washington. And we're proceeding on the basis, I think as I've indicated previously, publicly, that the Prime Minister and the President will meet in the context of the G20 meeting in London in April this year.
[Ends]
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