E&OE
6 May 2009
Joint Media Conference with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Foreign Trade Karel De Gucht
Subjects: Australia’s bilateral relations with Belgium, Sri Lanka, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Fiji.
STEPHEN SMITH: I start by officially welcoming Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Foreign Trade to Australia, to Western Australia and to Perth. Minister De Gucht has been in Australia since 3 May. He's been to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth today, and tomorrow to Port Hedland. And his visit here is the first visit of a Belgian Foreign Minister that we have record of.
It's not the first occasion we've met. I was in Belgium, in Brussels in December last year, where we met officially in a bilateral sense and this, in that sense, is the exchange or return visit.
We also have met in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in September last year and also at the recent Afghanistan Conference in The Hague earlier this year.
The relationship between Australia and Belgium is longstanding, friendly and warm. And, of course, most Australians would take our historical context back to the First World War and our contribution on the Western Front, including in Belgium. And each year we commemorate that contribution and that sacrifice.
Our modern day relationship is reflected by very high investment levels, of Belgian investment into Australia and good two-way trade. The Minister and I have discussed the potential for that investment and trade to increase. One of the focuses of the Minister's visit to Australia, and Western Australia, has been commercial business and infrastructure and investment, including an interest in the minerals and petroleum resources industry.
Our modern day relationship is also that of Belgium being a member of the European Union. Australia last year agreed an Australia-European Union partnership framework, which sets the modern day relationship between Australia and the European Union.
In Brussels, in Belgium, we find very many of the institutional trappings of the European Union, as we do the headquarters of NATO. We both are contributors to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, so our relationship also deals with international strategic and security issues, in particular Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the course of this morning, we've covered the array of issues that relate to our bilateral relationship and regional and international issues.
On the bilateral front, we recently, in the last couple of years, have concluded a work visa arrangement for young Belgians and last year we found nearly one thousand young Belgians coming to Australia on work visa arrangements.
Today we've announced agreement on a public health reciprocal arrangement which will enable Belgians visiting Australia to have access to our public hospitals and Australian tourists the same in Belgium, and that will be ratified in the course of this year. In the course of our discussions we also agreed to explore a social security agreement between Australia and Belgium, which we will now start discussions about.
We traversed the array of issues, including some of the difficult issues that confront the international community. And we will continue our discussions over lunch, including a discussion of our joint interests in Africa and also some regional issues in the Asia-Pacific, including difficulties in Sri Lanka, where Foreign Minister Kouchner from France and Foreign Secretary Miliband from the United Kingdom recently visited.
So Minister, we're very pleased to have you in Perth and in Australia. We're very pleased that you're able to make your first visit here and we look forward to you not just having a productive visit for the rest of your time here, but also an enjoyable one. I'd be very pleased if you could make some opening remarks.
KAREL DE GUCHT: Thank you very much Stephen for this very warm welcome. We finally made it, because we had to postpone the two earlier appointments due to internal political problems and difficulties that we have gone through in Belgium, and also because it takes some time to get here - more than a day.
But I'm very pleased to be here and I must say that I'm very positively surprised at - by the features that we have already been visiting, and discussions that we had in Melbourne and in Sydney with the economic community.
We are also very interested, of course, in the very huge infrastructure program that you are launching and I hope that you will launch it with a lot of strength, especially in these difficult economic times. That would be good for your economy and it probably would also be good for our enterprises, so why not.
There is also very much cooperation between your country and mine with respect to modern technologies; amongst others, nanotechnology. We have the leading international organisation with respect to nanotechnologies is a Belgian one, it's IMEC and I'm very pleased that NICTA, your organisation, is very closely working together with them and regards IMEC as being the reference at the world wide level.
I think there are many other fields where we could so fruitfully work together. I said yesterday that I think that it should be possible to double our trade within 10 years and I think that's really feasible to do so. The direct investments are already at the very high level, Belgium being the eighth investor in Australia and - which means that this is a country that it makes sense to invest in and that's what, - of course, why it happens.
Now going to the bilateral issues, I very much welcome that - there is a readiness to start discussions on the social security agreement, I think it could be useful to do so. Yours and ours have already concluded several of those agreements with other countries. We should also do it with each other I think. There is also the visa agreement which is very fruitful.
But there are still remaining problems, especially with working permits, and that's the kind of thing that tends to become more difficult in an economic crisis. But on the other hand it sometimes also is necessary to resolve them, because it could have an impact on the work that we are performing in your country.
As far as the international situation is concerned, we share your concern with respect to the Seychelles, where they went away from the democratic system into an authoritarian one. And I think that you will agree that the step that has been taken by the European Commission, to cancel a sugar payment to the Seychelles, is a very clear sign that we have exactly the same approach…
[Inaudible talking in the background]
STEPHEN SMITH: Fiji.
KAREL DE GUCHT: Fiji, yes, of course. Excuse me.
Of course, the Fiji Islands, and they went away from democracy to a authoritarian rule and I think it's a very clear sign that we have exactly the same analysis that the European Union, European Commission announced, they're going to cancel a very substantial payment with respect to sugar, to the Fiji Islands, up to 24 million Euros, which is a very huge amount for such a tiny country.
But I think we should be very clear and we give a sign that we cannot live with the political situation as it develops over there.
We also share your analysis of Sri Lanka. It's a very difficult problem Sri Lanka and as far as I can remember the toll has very rarely been as high as the recent past, as the recent weeks that we have gone through. So I really hope that there we can help and the international community can give us somewhat of a direction to the confrontation between the army and the Tigers. So this is a very very difficult problem to resolve.
I'm also very pleased that Australia will support our candidacy for the Human Rights Council. The elections are due to happen within a couple of weeks in the course of the month of May.
You know that the Human Rights Council is a very important body, but on the other hand also a very controversial body, because several countries that we would not automatically call democratic countries and respecting human rights are members of it, and that's - I think it's very important that all kind of countries, democracies, who attach a lot of importance to human rights are present here and use this tribune for supporting and enlarging the respect of human rights all over the planet.
STEPHEN SMITH: Well thank you very much, Minister.
We're happy to respond to questions on those matters, or other matters. If Australian journalists have got questions about domestic issues, if we can leave those until we've concluded questions on the bilateral relationship.
QUESTION: Sorry. [Indistinct] from Fairfax radio. Could I just - could you just indulge me for a minute. What is your first impressions of Perth and Australia? On a very light note I understand, what are your first impressions of Perth and Australia?
KAREL DE GUCHT: Well as Stephen said, I have been to Melbourne, Sydney and now Perth. First of all what impresses me is that you have a very big country. We flew in from Sydney this morning and it took us a little bit more than four hours. And when you look at the map of Australia it's - you can even imagine to have much longer trips, when you go from to the east from the west, then it can easily take six hours I think. So this is very huge - and even you over flow Belgium it must take about 20 minutes, and if the winds go in the right direction, a quarter of an hour.
[Laughter]
So this is completely different. On the other hand we are not that bad and little as you might imagine we have a Gross National Product which is a little bit more than a third of yours, and I think your territory is about 100 times Belgium's or something like that, if not more.
No it's - what strikes me is that it is a very beautiful country. I haven't seen Perth yet, I'm just arriving, but Melbourne city and Sydney is European …in fact European cities, we are feeling at home here. I think that's a big difference compared to whether you go to - I'm not going to name countries but…
[Laughter]
…I might make a mistake. If you go to the Seychelles the weather is almost as good as it is here.
[Laughter]
I say something nice about them as well.
No but it is a very western country in fact, and that's very striking that so far away, more than 15,000 kilometres away you in fact end up in a society which is almost the same as we are living in, and we are happy to live in.
QUESTION: Are you excited about investment opportunities in Australia?
KAREL DE GUCHT: Well, as I just said we have quite a lot of Belgian investments in Australia. We have the eight [sic] investor in Australia. We are also very instrumental in infrastructure works. We are the number one and the number three of the worldwide of dredging companies are Belgian, and they are very much present in the Australian market. We are very much interested in the infrastructure projects that you are planning for the future, and I think we should also develop our cooperation in modern technology.
There is a vast array of possibilities there and we should explore it much more.
We have in Belgium a lot of small and medium-sized business, but also in modern technology, bio-technology, microelectronics, artificial intelligence and so on, and some of them are a little bit scared to set up a business so far away, but I think if they had come for once they would realise that maybe it takes a little bit longer to arrive, but once that you have arrived here you are at home, and I'll try to explain that to them when I'm back.
QUESTION: … [indistinct]. Mr Smith, on Fiji, there are reports that the military Government has released prisoners [indistinct] prisoners. Are you aware of those?
STEPHEN SMITH: I've seen references to those but I'm not in a position to give any independent verification. As you know we have expressed our considerable concern so far as Fiji is concerned. The abrogation of its constitution, the walking away from respecting the judiciary and legal institutions. I'm not in a position to confirm the details of those reports that I have seen, but we are very generally concerned about the administration of legal institutions and justice in Fiji.
Of course, the starting point of the abrogation of the constitution was Commodore Bainimarama refusing to accept the decision of the appeal court.
More generally, can I say I welcome very much the Foreign Minister's underlining of the European Union's decision to effectively suspend the European Union sugar levy. As the Minister says, Australia and the European Union and the international community are at one in wanting Fiji to return to democracy. Australia's view of that is reflected by our travel sanctions and we continue to urge the interim administration to effectively return to democracy and to do that as quickly as possible.
The effect of the abrogation of the constitution has been the suspension of Fiji from the meetings and forums of the Pacific Island Forum. And when the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group meets in the forthcoming weeks and months, I fully expect that it's suspension on comparable terms from the Commonwealth is also inevitable.
QUESTION: Were you pushing for that with those?
STEPHEN SMITH: Australia's view is that until Fiji shows genuine desire and efforts to return to democracy, it should be suspended from the forums and meetings of the Pacific Island Forum which has occurred. And it should be suspended from the forums of the Commonwealth, consistent with the Commonwealth's previous actions when other countries have walked away from democracy.
QUESTION: I understand Australian troops killed a [indistinct] Taliban commander. Can you tell us about that and what it means to Coalition Forces?
STEPHEN SMITH: I'll leave the detail of that to the Chief of the Defence Forces and my colleague, Minister Fitzgibbon.
But more generally, can I say - and Afghanistan was one of the subjects we spoke about this morning, Belgium and Australia are of course both contributors to the International Security Assistance Force - we understand that Afghanistan is difficult and dangerous. But we continue to be of the view that Australia and the international community need to make contributions to stare down the international terrorism threat in Afghanistan.
And that's reflected by our recent decision to enhance our contribution by way of additional temporary security forces for the election in August. But also a substantial increase in our training, both of the Afghan National Army and police and also enhanced contribution so far as capacity building and development assistance is concerned.
So we will often get these incidences and I'll leave the detail of that appropriately to the defence forces. But we continue to very strongly believe that it's in our national interest to make our contribution in Afghanistan. And we welcome the fact that Belgium, as a member of NATO, also makes its contribution. It's a well respected contributor in Afghanistan.
QUESTION: You also mentioned Sri Lanka this morning. What do you think about the situation there and has the Government raised its concerns with their Government about civilian casualties?
STEPHEN SMITH: This morning we had a conversation about Sri Lanka. As I indicated, Foreign Minister Kouchner from France and Foreign Secretary Miliband from the United Kingdom were in Colombo in Sri Lanka recently.
I spoke to Foreign Minister Miliband when I was in Turkey for the Anzac Day Commemoration Services. And, last week, when I returned from Gallipoli I spoke to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Bogollagama and I continued to make the point that Australia has made, and the international community has made, including the European Union - that we remain very concerned about civilians who are caught in the hostile zone.
We continue to urge the Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers to allow those civilians to remove themselves from the area.
We welcome the fact that the Sri Lankan Government indicated that it was halting the firing of artillery and heavy weapons, or heavy armour, into areas where civilians were. I expressed my concern that there'd been reports that this hadn't occurred across the board and that, of course, needs to be fully implemented.
I also impressed upon Foreign Minister Bogollagama, that whilst it is clear that the military conflict in Sri Lanka is about to end, or will end, in favour of the Sri Lankan Government against the Tamil Tigers, that this is not a longstanding difficulty that can be solved by military conflict alone. There needs to be a political dialogue, there needs to be political reform, there needs to be a political rapprochement to enable Sri Lanka to live in a long-term, enduring atmosphere of peace and security.
We continue to urge the Tamil Tigers to lay down their arms and last week I announced, and also informed Foreign Minister Bogollagama, of Australia's additional contribution of $4.5 million for humanitarian assistance, largely for displaced people.
I also indicated to Foreign Minister Bogollagama that, in the usual way, Australia would expect the displaced people's camps had access to, or were accessible to, international observers, particularly international Red Cross and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees personnel.
Foreign Minister Bogollagama requested that I give consideration to any additional medical assistance that we could provide and we're looking at that. And I hope to be in a position, in the near future, to announce whether we're able to make a further contribution to Sri Lanka by way of further medical assistance.
QUESTION: And, on Pakistan, the situation has deteriorated, how concerned are you with that?
STEPHEN SMITH: Foreign Minister De Gucht and I spoke about Pakistan. We've both been to Pakistan. I was in Pakistan in January and a couple of weeks ago, in Tokyo, I attended the Friends of Democratic Pakistan ministerial meeting.
Australia has been very concerned about Pakistan for some time. We've made the point consistently that the extremist threat to Pakistan is not confined to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border; it is a threat to the existence of Pakistan as a nation state. I've made these points again to President Zardari.
Pakistan needs all of the assistance it can receive from the international community, both security and economic. I indicated both to Foreign Minister Qureshi, when I was in Pakistan, and also to President Zardari when I was in Tokyo and met with him, that we would effectively double our development assistance contribution.
We're also enhancing the training that we provide to Pakistan Defence and military officials. We are very concerned about developments in Pakistan.
I spoke, when I was in Tokyo, with Ambassador Holbrook who is the special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. And last night I spoke to our newly appointed envoy special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Rick Smith, the former Defence and Foreign Affairs senior official. He will be having a conversation with Ambassador Holbrook in Washington by the end of the week.
We continue to impress upon the international community the grave difficulties that Pakistan faces. The international community, in our view, needs to render Pakistan all the assistance that it can.
QUESTION: [Inaudible question]
STEPHEN SMITH: I think Mick Keelty has been a very fine Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. I think he's a very fine officer. He has presided over a period of considerable change in the AFP, particularly its international reach.
The international security and international criminal issues that we face have effectively transformed in the period of time that Mr Keelty's been a Federal police officer. And so he has a distinguished record. No-one who's been a police officer for 35 years is free from criticism, but I think he's made a substantial contribution and we wish him well.
I think it's a measure of his contribution that he's decided to retire officially on the thirty-fifth anniversary of his starting as a Federal Police officer. My colleagues, Minister Debus and the Attorney-General Mr McClelland will make an announcement about his replacement in due course in the usual way.
KAREL DE GUCHT: If you allow me to say something about Pakistan. I think that the coming weeks will be very important for this situation because you now have a direct confrontation between the Taliban and the Pakistan Army. After that, they agreed that will be Shariah regime in Swat the Taliban continued and it's obvious that in Swat and also in Buner this is a combination of Taliban and gangs of bandits, in fact.
And I think it's very important to see what will happen in the coming weeks in this confrontation between the army and the Taliban and together with these gangs. It could very well be that if we are able to stop this and push them back, that this could seriously change the situation in Pakistan.
Secondly, when you look a little back into the past of Pakistan, until about a year ago, they had a very good economic growth figure of about seven to eight per cent. So, this is certainly in certain areas, especially in the boarding areas with Afghanistan, the tribal areas and in the new west [indistinct] province, a developing country, but it's also an industrial nation. So if economic growth would come back I think it was also - it would also positively change the situation in Pakistan. So we should not be hopeless with respect to Pakistan and we should, of course, take very much care that things stay under control but not panic either about Pakistan. I think that we should be very wise.
STEPHEN SMITH: The Minister has made a very good point and our colleague Foreign Minister Qureshi makes the same point - that we can't solve Pakistan's security problems and challenges without also addressing its economic challenges.
When I met with Foreign Minister Qureshi, one of the things we agreed was to seek to enhance the economic relationship between Australia and Pakistan. There's a lot that we have in common, infrastructure is one, but also agriculture and agricultural products is another.
But I also share Foreign Minister De Gucht's assessment that whilst we know Pakistan is a very challenging situation, we should not be defeatist. I've seen references to Pakistan as a failed state, that is not a categorisation or a description that Australia shares. We want the international community to give Pakistan every assistance, both economically and in the security sense.
Pakistan is strategically a very important country, strategically important to South Asia, to Central Asia, close to the Middle East. The second largest Muslim-populated country in the world, on population projections, it will overtake Indonesia in the course of the next 20 or 30 years. And, of course, it has nuclear weapons, so this must focus the minds of the international community.
QUESTION: And do you need security stability to get economic growth back to where it...
STEPHEN SMITH: In any troubled area, whether it's East Timor or the Solomon Islands, in our own context, whether it's Afghanistan - it's not efforts to bring peace and security for peace and security's sake, it's an effort to bring peace and security to enable nations to grow and their citizens to enjoy the same economic and social benefits that citizens of peaceful countries enjoy.
The same is also true of Fiji, one of the very serious adverse consequences of Fiji moving away from democracy to effectively a military dictatorship has been a very serious, deleterious decline in its economic and social circumstances and we're worried that that will continue.
KAREL DE GUCHT: You know, when you look at Pakistan, you said, you need economic development and you need security to have economic development, that is true to a certain extent of growth for economic further development. But it is already a lot of economic development and investments and industries and services in Pakistan who will automatically start over again when economic growth comes back at a regional level and at the level of the rest of the world, you know. So, there is a lot of in place, it's not as if there is security, then you could start the economic development of Pakistan, that's not true.
Pakistan, in itself, in its own right, is an industrial nation, of course, with a lot of very poor people with problems in the border region with Afghanistan which is a very huge region because it's about 107 - 1700 kilometres long, so this is a very huge place where you have troubles. But it's also an industrial nation. It's not as if you have to start the economic development of Pakistan. That's the wrong view on Pakistan, that's simply not true and we should bear that in mind when we talk - you have to take care when you say of a country it is a failing or a failed state. I mean, when you compare the situation in Pakistan, even now, with the situation of a large number of countries in Africa, that's quite different, it's not the same.
STEPHEN SMITH: I agree with that. I am going to have to take Foreign Minister De Gucht off to lunch so that the only delight of Perth he experiences is not the Belgium Beer Café later in the day.
Thanks very much everyone. Thank you.
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