Transcript of interview with Linda Mottram, ABC Radio Early AM program

Subjects: East Asia Summit; Burma

Transcript, E&OE

29 October 2010

TONY EASTLEY: For years, ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has defended its relevancy. This latest meeting in Hanoi will be boosted by the presence of the UN Secretary-General, Bank Ki-Moon, and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Her attendance follows the US decision to join the expanded ASEAN meeting, known as the East Asia Summit, which looks a bit like Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd's proposed idea of the Asia-Pacific community.

In Canberra, Radio Australia's Linda Mottram has been speaking to Kevin Rudd.

KEVIN RUDD: It's what Australia's been arguing for in recent years. We've called it an Asia-Pacific community. But what was that at its substance? One, a body which was capable of having a wide mandate across security, economic and other matters; two, that it would include the United States; and three, that it would meet at summit level. Those three elements are now alive with the decision of the United States, and, of course, Russia, to enter the East Asian Summit. This is a good development for Australia.

LINDA MOTTRAM: The habits of cooperation in Asia are really embedded in economic matters, aren't they, shared economic interests. Does that need to be also embedded in the East Asia Summit process or whatever this ends up being?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, if you look at the original declaration for the East Asia Summit at Kuala Lumpur, I think, some five years ago, its mandate is broad. It covers political and security matters, it covers economic matters. It covers other areas of cooperation as well.

So, therefore, the evolution of its agenda over time proceeds from that original document. What is new, however, is we now have America in, and for this body to be meeting at Summit level.

Hillary Clinton will be attending this one at Hanoi, and, of course, President Obama, the next one, in Indonesia next year. Again, this is a good development for Australia.

LINDA MOTTRAM: How difficult an issue, do you think, Burma is for the region, for ASEAN in particular, of the region more widely?

KEVIN RUDD: I think, for the members of ASEAN, it has been a constant challenge. Certainly, in my discussions in recent years with leaders and ministers from South-East Asian countries, Burma represents for them a continuing real challenge.

The absence of democratic norms within Burma are not consistent with where most within the region want to go over time. Secondly, the upcoming elections still represent something which falls far short of democratic norms. It's pretty basic when you've got, still, dozens of political parties unable to participate in the election, 2000 political prisoners still in jail. When you have Aung San Suu Kyi still under house arrest. When you have no international monitors for the election. When you have no foreign media presence. I would suggest this probably falls short of most people's idea of a democratic norm.

For us, therefore, in Australia, this is a major challenge for the region for the future, and we've got to continue to apply maximal diplomatic pressure to the regime in Rangoon to improve.

TONY EASTLEY: Australia's Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd speaking there with Linda Mottram in Canberra.

ENDS

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