E&OE
23 March 2009
Article published in the UAE newspaper The National
Subject: Australia and the UAE are natural allies - let’s build on that
Author: Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister
Forging closer relations with the countries of the Gulf is a high priority for Australia.
I visited the UAE on one of my first trips as Foreign Minister. My visits were followed by those of the prime minister and governor general of Australia. I return this week to take part in the inaugural Australia-UAE dialogue convened by Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy, under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
I have met many of my Gulf counterparts since taking on the role of Foreign Minister. These interactions have confirmed my long-held view that there is enormous untapped potential in Australia’s relations with the members of the GCC.
As often happens, industry saw this potential before government. As someone from Western Australia, the home of Australia’s minerals and petroleum resources industry, I am delighted to see the growing presence of Australia’s specialist oil and gas engineering companies in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf.
The visionary leaders of the UAE airline industry – first Emirates, and now Etihad – have also built up an impressive network, with numerous flights between Australia and the Gulf, and from here to many points on the globe. Where the airlines go, travellers follow. The famous holiday resorts of Queensland, in particular, have been discovered by a new generation of Gulf tourists.
A greater mutual understanding between our two countries has brought about increased people-to-people links. Australian universities host more and more students from across the GCC, including more than 1,100 students from the UAE alone. The connections and friendships built at schools and universities endure long after students return home.
Thousands of Australian professionals have made the Gulf – particularly the UAE – their second home. Many more have come to depend on the airports of Dubai and Abu Dhabi as their natural transport hubs.
Australia wants to build on these growing links and to formalise a dialogue with the countries of the Gulf. The inaugural Australia-UAE Dialogue helps us to achieve this goal. This timely initiative brings together eminent Australians and Emiratis from all sectors to generate fresh ideas for bilateral cooperation, to forge new personal connections between our two countries and to discuss common challenges.
The countries of the Gulf and Australia have all felt the effects of the international financial crisis. In the lead-up to the London G20 Summit, it will be useful to discuss our individual and collective responses to the global emergency.
Reducing barriers to trade has been recognised as an important response to this economic crisis. Australia sources a significant part of its energy requirements from Gulf nations and the GCC has in turn become Australia’s ninth-largest export market, accounting for A$8 billion (Dh20 billion) of our exports. Australia and the GCC are engaged in the negotiations towards a free trade agreement and we look forward to both sides gaining the real benefits of this agreement.
The UAE and Australia also share similar assessments of the global strategic challenges. We both remain very concerned about Afghanistan’s future. The citizens of Afghanistan deserve to live in peace with a stable political and economic system. And the world should be freed, once and for all, from the prospect of international terrorism. Australia and the UAE, as Friends of Pakistan, are committed to helping the government of Pakistan to tackle its pressing internal challenges.
Australia and the UAE also share the goal of a comprehensive, lasting settlement to the Arab-Israeli dispute, and strongly support a two-state solution.
On coming to power, my government doubled Australia’s development assistance to the Palestinian Territories. At the recent Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Australia committed a further $20 million to assist the Palestinian people. Australia applauds the contribution Gulf states made at the conference and supports the Arab Peace Initiative for a broader Middle East peace.
The Australia-UAE Dialogue highlights the enormous scope for the development of new and different aspects of our bilateral relations. There is scope in so many areas – in the field of combating climate change, urban design, education and tourism, to renewable energy and green technology – in which Australia and the Gulf are natural partners.
I am determined to build on all that our business people, students and ordinary citizens have already achieved. I look forward to institutionalising further a dialogue between Australia and the Gulf countries to realise the full potential of our relationship.
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