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VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Ten million dollars in immediate funds will now go to the recovery effort, with another five million pledged for longer term reconstruction.

For more on Australia's role in the disaster relief, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith joins us now from Canberra.

Stephen Smith, good morning, thanks for joining us.

STEPHEN SMITH: Pleasure Virginia.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: At this stage we don't have any peacekeepers or personnel on the ground in Haiti in that regard, are you considering that in the future we might actually supply some kind of personnel?

STEPHEN SMITH: Not peacekeepers, either military, defence or police. We currently have about 20 countries from the region who supply a military contribution to the UN peacekeeping mission there out of about 40 countries who supply police. We welcome and support the Security Council's unanimous resolution last night to supplement that peacekeeping force. But we anticipate that that will come from countries in the region, particularly the United States and Brazil and countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, countries already contributing.

What I've made clear is that we're currently in discussions with the United Nations about whether we have any individuals of technical expertise who might be of assistance at the moment. Communication for example continues to be very difficult, so we may have communications or engineering or logistics experts who may be able to assist. Now some of those individuals may well be in our military or defence services but if they do go it won't be as part of the UN peacekeeping contribution.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: As you noted yesterday, we've signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CARICOM which is the Caribbean organisation that then has to deal with situations affecting those countries, in particular dealing with disaster management and emergency relief. Is it possible then given that we've signed that Memorandum of Understanding that we might be supplying more money in aid to Haiti in some time soon?

STEPHEN SMITH: The fact that we've enhanced our engagement with the Caribbean and in November last year we signed that Memorandum of Understanding with CARICOM the regional organisation representing the countries of the Caribbean including Haiti, is one of the reasons why we have given what historically is a substantially higher contribution to a disaster in the Caribbean than previously.

There are a number of factors why we've done that. One that the scale of the human tragedy is just so great, we wanted to give a generous contribution and the Australian people would have expected that of the Government. As they're doing it themselves with their individual contributions. But with our enhanced engagement with CARICOM, particularly the fact that the Memorandum of Understanding refers to disaster relief management and coordination or cooperation with CDEMA, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency. That's one of the reasons why our contribution is greater than historically.

But also one of the reasons why we'll be sitting down, not just with the UN assessment teams but also with CARICOM and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Authority for consideration about what more, if anything we can do for the long-term reconstruction.

We doubled yesterday our immediate emergency contribution…

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Yeah.

STEPHEN SMITH:… will leave for obviously further and later consideration literally when the dust settles, about whether there's more we can do for long-term reconstruction. Because that will obviously be as your correspondent made clear, a very significant long-term challenge for not just Haiti and the Caribbean but for the international community.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Indeed and not to quibble with the amount of money Australia has pledged, as you say it's significant, but when you look at the situation in Haiti and also when you take into consideration that that was a rather lawless and desperate country to begin before the earthquake actually struck. Then when you talk about long term reconstruction, there's the danger that you could have to commit yourself to enormous sums of money and great numbers of personnel in order to bring about stability in a country that wasn't terribly stable to being with?

STEPHEN SMITH: That point is right because you had, before the Security Council resolution over night, about 10,000 military and police there as part of a peacekeeping mission which had been there for half a dozen years or so. But I think there is, given the images that we've seen, the terrible devastation, the human tragedy both general and individual, a very clear willingness on the part of the international community to pitch in and try and help.

That is certainly reflected in the conversations I've had with my counterparts, with Hillary Clinton last week when she advised that she couldn't come to Australia because she had to return to Washington to help coordinate United States response. And also when I spoke to my Brazilian counterpart Celso Amorim over the weekend. Brazil of course being the current lead nation so far as the peacekeeping forces are concerned.

So that willingness is there, but it will require a long term commitment and also effective coordination which is always a problem in the immediate aftermath and will continue to be a challenge to make sure we get that coordination right.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Turning to other stories this morning and it's been alarming to read that new United Nations report that says corruption produces almost as much money in Afghanistan as the country's illegal drug trade. Indeed the figure there were just $2.5 billion paid in bribes by local Afghanis in the last 12 months. That almost matches the amount of money generated by the illegal drug trade. We still have personnel there, we still have hopes for that country but that's a desperate situation of just how corrupt that country is right now isn't it?

STEPHEN SMITH: Narcotics and corruption and governance are key issues that both before the recent Afghan election and after, I said that whoever emerged as the new Afghan Government, these were two issues, corruption and narcotics, where the Afghan Government had to make much more substantial progress than it had in the past.

The Karzai Government has re-emerged and is settling into office. We've got an international conference of Foreign Ministers in London next week and one of the things that the purpose or the objective of that conference is to essentially have a compact in Afghanistan and the international community to make progress on these fronts.

Afghanistan won't be won in the sense of staring down terrorist and stopping Afghanistan being a hot bed of, or breeding ground for terrorists, by military contribution alone. It requires political, economic, and social contributions as well and making progress on corruption, making progress on governance, and making progress on narcotics is a very important part of that. We've made that point clear directly to Afghanistan but also to our international partners on the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Yes, and we've heard those comments again and again but it's getting harder and harder I should imagine for the general community to have any faith in that call, in that insistence by the allied countries there in Afghanistan because not only does the situation not change but according to reports such as this UN one, it gets worse.

STEPHEN SMITH: I've made it crystal clear directly to my Afghan counterpart, Foreign Minister Spanta who will finish up as Foreign Minister and become President Karzai's international advisor. I made the point directly to him when I last met him in New York at the General Assembly last year that unless the international community see progress on corruption, sees progress on narcotics, then the political will of the international community to assist will abate, will be adversely affected. So part of the London…

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: You mean the international community will simply withdraw from Afghanistan, that we'll walk away?

STEPHEN SMITH: No, we have a long term commitment to staring down international terrorism there. But the point I made to Foreign Minister Spanta is that unless the international community, including Australia, sees progress on these fronts there will be a dampening of the political will in the international community to render assistance. That's why not only do we need to see progress on the security front, we need to see progress on these issues, but also progress on a political rapprochement or reconciliation and also the provision of essential services to the Afghan people, education, health, infrastructure and the like.

So a civilian capacity building contribution from the international community is also important, which is one of the things that Australia is contemplating in the run up to the London conference.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Stephen Smith the time is against us and there's a number of issues I want to really quickly race through, if I can, sorry to put you under pressure, but has the skirmishes between the anti-whaling protestors and Japanese whaling ships, have they compromised a potential military deal and defence deal that Australia wants to strike with Japan?

STEPHEN SMITH: No, absolutely not. In fact I was very pleased yesterday to see officials from the Japanese Ministry of Defence making the point that I've made in the past, which is Australia and Japan have a disagreement over whaling but neither Australia or Japan will let it get in the way of what is a comprehensive, economic, and strategic partnership.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So that partnership is sound in your view?

STEPHEN SMITH: Absolutely. I mean, yes we have robust exchanges on a disagreement over whaling. We continue to be of the view that we can address that diplomatically, both bilaterally with Japan and through the International Whaling Commission. But neither Australia nor Japan will allow that disagreement to get into the way of a long term, long standing, and very important relationship that Australia has in our region with Japan.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Okay, Stephen, just very quickly as well, we're just hearing news this morning, in addition of course to those Jetstar executives who are being held in Vietnam, about two Australian bankers are now being held in Papua New Guinea, Robin Fleming and John Maddison. What do you know of that situation and what can you tell the Australian public about that?

STEPHEN SMITH: I'm not in a position at this stage to give any information on the PNG matter. Obviously that's emerged overnight and I'm seeking advice. I don't want to pre-empt any comments there.

So far as the two Jetstar executives in Vietnam are concerned, I met with the Ambassador, the Vietnamese Ambassador to Australia late last week. I made the point that we were keenly interested in their situation. It's been made clear to me by the Ambassador that those two executives are not the focus of the investigation, the focus is elsewhere. But the Vietnamese authorities want them to stay to assist in their enquiries and the investigation.

I've made it clear that we would want the investigation to be expeditious to allow those two Australians to return to Australia sooner rather than later. Literally as we speak Qantas executives are in

Vietnam having further conversations with Vietnamese authorities about those two Australians.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Stephen Smith, good to talk to you, thanks for your time.

STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks Virginia thanks very much.

[END]

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