Joint press conference with Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb

Subjects: Ice hockey, bilateral meeting, climate change, Middle East, Russia, China, Osama bin Laden; Afghanistan.

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

Helsinki, Finland

16 May 2011

ALEXANDER STUBB: Good morning everyone, it's very nice to see you here. We just had a wonderful breakfast. I'm still very much in an ice hockey mode. Kevin was kind enough that when he landed he congratulated us on twitter for the world championships, and I was trying to make the comparison, that it is a little bit like winning the world cup in rugby.

The one thing I haven't explained to Kevin yet was Mikael Granlund's goal in the semi-final against Russia. He did a so-called 'lacrosse goal' which you don't see very often. You flip the puck onto the stick like that and go around the net and hook it in. No one has ever seen it on that level before but I'll send you a couple of YouTube video clips on it.

We had a very nice meeting this morning. My first touch of base with Australia was in 2003 when I was kindly enough invited to Australia on one of these visiting programs and I vividly remember my first encounter with Kevin, which he doesn't remember of course. It was a lively debate in Parliament when Alexander Downer was Foreign Minister and Kevin Rudd was Shadow Foreign Secretary. I came out there with my mouth open and said, 'Thank God we don't have these types of violent foreign policy debates in Finland'. It was a great trip indeed.

This morning we've had a chance to talk about many issues, touched issues on European Union. We didn't really need to talk bilateral stuff. We talked about Russia and we talked about China. So, all in all, a wonderful kick-off to the week and start to the morning.

We're of course very pleased to have Kevin here.

KEVIN RUDD: Thank you very much Alex and it's good to be back in Helsinki.

I first came here as a young diplomat about 30 years ago and I've always had a deep attachment to Finland and of course to the good people of Helsinki. And I know something from personal experience how much ice hockey is drilled into the Finnish soul and so when I arrived here last night I could sense the jubilation from 30,000 feet that was occurring down here in the streets of Helsinki.

So congratulations to Finland and on an extraordinary win in the World Championships.

Given I know that I am going to Stockholm in 2 days' time, I'll probably have to say something different.

ALEXANDER STUBB: Don't worry, Carl Bildt does not understand one iota of ice hockey and he admits it.

KEVIN RUDD: Is that right?

Congratulations on the terrific result and as someone who loves sport myself, cricket and rugby - Australia is not very good at ice hockey, we don't have a lot of ice - I understand something of the significance of this event.

Secondly, can I say how much we value our cooperation with Finland both bilaterally and multilaterally, through the forums of the United Nations and elsewhere. Finland has been a force for good in the international community and we work with Finland closely in a whole range of multilateral challenges within the United Nations framework.

We also discussed some of the challenges concerning climate change. We spoke about the Artic and the Antarctic this morning. We see the shrinking of the polar ice caps and the implications which that has for our respective communities and, from a policy perspective, the need to continue to prosecute our efforts through the multilateral institutions to bring about an outcome of climate change.

We've also discussed recent developments in the Middle East, both in Syria and in Libya. I note with appreciation the humanitarian contribution by our good friends in Finland towards the terrible situation which continues to unfold on the ground in Misrata and in various parts of north western Libya and elsewhere. The deliberations by the ICC in relation to Libya are of profound importance and it is time again for all of us in the international community to say loud and clear to Qaddafi - the time has come to go. We watch also with concern developments in Syria as people raise their voices there in pursuit of democratic freedoms there in countering violent oppression.

As the Minister said, we've also discussed at length Finland's long-standing neighbour Russia and Australia also has a deep engagement with Russia not only in this part of the world but also in parts of the far Middle East. We welcome Russia's recent decision to join the East Asian Summit which will meet for the first time at the Head of Government level at the end of this year in Bali, Indonesia.

And we've also discussed the global and emerging global economic power of China which is of deep and profound relevance to those of us in the East Asia and the Western Pacific but of global consequence too here in Europe.

Finally, I'm very sorry you've damaged your leg – I presume that was from ice hockey practice as well - I'm surprised not to see you in the national team and given that I know that the Minister is an avid sports enthusiast but I'm sure that the Minister is going to remain in Finnish politics and I look forward to maintaining my contact with him into the future. Thank you very much.

ALEXANDER STUBB: Can I just make one comment - my dad is the chief scout of the National Hockey League and has been so for 30 years and when I was young both my brother and I played ice hockey and we were told especially to study languages. We asked 'Dad, why do we need to study languages? We speak Swedish with you, Finnish with mum and we speak good English and we're going to play for the National Hockey League'. Later on we understood that he was a talent scout and that he saw that these boys ain't going to be nothing in ice hockey so please get a proper education.

Please go ahead.

REPORTER: As much as I would like to continue this lovely repartee about sports, not to mention The Ashes, we won't go there

KEVIN RUDD: That's very undiplomatic of you . . .

REPORTER: Let's get serious.

KEVIN RUDD: We're very serious about the Ashes

REPORTER: How do you view the killing of Osama bin Laden? Do you think that makes any difference to the globe, to the world at the moment?

KEVIN RUDD: When I was in Washington by chance when the news of Osama bin Laden broke about a week and a half ago, I spoke at length with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defence the day following. The first and fundamental fact is this: it is important the international community brings terrorists to justice.

Osama bin Laden was a mass murderer, let us be very clear about that.

No one disputes the connection between him and the events of September 11. No one credibly disputes the link between him and September 11.

So the first and foremost principle we believe is important is that if people commit acts of mass murder through terrorist means then we the international community will join forces to track them down, no matter how long it takes. It may take a while, but that was a necessary conclusion to that long-standing investigation and long-standing attempt to bring him to justice.

The second point obviously against the continued campaign against terrorism, the threat has not gone away. It is real, it is continuing and the Al Qaeda phenomenon will mutate across the world. There are very many manifestations of it in South East Asia, across various parts of the Arabian peninsula, and also in the Horn of Africa. We're familiar with that. It means however that we need to maintain our vigilance through our security forces, through our intelligence agencies, because this is a threat against all liberal democratic open societies. So the threat has not gone away, that is important that we underline our resolve to bring terrorists to justice.

REPORTER: Did you speak about Afghanistan? How do you assess the situation in Afghanistan now and do you think that death of Osama bin Laden affects in any way the situation in Afghanistan?

KEVIN RUDD: Well in Afghanistan I would acknowledge to begin with Finland's long-standing military contribution. We've been in Afghanistan from the beginning. We currently have 1,500 troops plus, primarily in a province called Oruzgan which lies between Helmand and Kandahar and, together with Finland, we've lost troops in Afghanistan and this is a sacrifice which our men and women in uniform continue to make.

Secondly, since the Lisbon conference confirmed our combined strategy towards Afghanistan, which is both about the security dimension and the training of Afghan security national force, and the larger economic transformation of the country, and it's about political reconciliation, the strategy nation-wide is being implemented effectively. It is not easy. It is very hard. But I can report from our part of Afghanistan where we have a dominant footprint which is the province of Oruzgan, having been there every year for the last 5 years and seen the changes on the ground, I do believe that real progress has been made.

As for the implications of the killing of Osama bin Laden, what we have believed prior to that killing and said publicly in many of our statements on Afghanistan is that this will be a difficult and violent year in Afghanistan, given the extraordinary advances which NATO ISAF forces have made in the previous 12 months so we should be prepared for difficulties in the year ahead. But I believe that we are tracking in a positive direction rather than a negative direction in that country.

ALEXANDER STUBB: Our take on Afghanistan remains the same as it was before the elections.

We are committed to the operation under ISAF.

We're going right now from 190 to 195-strong up in the northern region which is relatively speaking a little bit calmer. We're participating in the international transition up until 2014. We're beginning the transformation of the security responsibilities to the Afghans themselves and we're taking it step by step. There will not be any sudden movements coming from Finland within the next few months or years.

REPORTER: Moving on to the panel meeting today, what do you see as the biggest challenges of the meeting here in Helsinki during the next two days?

KEVIN RUDD: Well, the panel established under the UN Secretary General on Global Sustainability is doing important work in the lead up to Rio+20 which is due to be held next year.

We all remember the Earth Summit 20 years ago in Rio Di Janeiro on sustainable development globally which has many dimensions to it, one of which is of course is climate change and I acknowledge publicly the importance the leadership of President Halonen and President Zuma of South Africa and I am proud and privileged to be a member of that panel.

In our concrete work, we are now about 6 months through our project.

It's difficult, it's complex seeking to bring together what I describe the two great streams of international work: firstly on international development tasks, we have had of course the Millennium Summit. We now have the Millennium Development Goals and we'll have a report card in 2016 the extent to which we've succeeded or failed as an international community in lifting people out of poverty. But the great stream of our international work lies in the area of global sustainability and we have had of course continued negotiations on climate change, agreements in Copenhagen and most recently in Cancun. Also agreements on biodiversity and also related environmental agreements globally.

But what has not occurred so far is to bring both of these great stands of work together so that when we are embarking upon the great task of development for the impoverished peoples of the world, that we are simultaneously mindful of the environmental impact of our future environmental development. And that is what this panel seeks to do, to bring together a synthesized approach to both development and the environment as well as of course the need of course to bring down poverty.

So we're 6 months into it, complex work, hard work, we're wrestling within that the challenge of climate change again, and that is real for all countries of the world, whether you are in Finland or whether you are in Australia, we all have a climate change reality. It's a global reality. So that is part and parcel of our work as well.

But I look forward to the next two days in Helsinki and with our other panelists from around the world. There's a lot of work to be done and I look forward to working with President Halonen on this project.

REPORTER: there has been some criticism that in Copenhagen we didn't get anywhere, in Cancun we didn't get anywhere. Now you talk about the synthesized integration process I think you said would be successful.

KEVIN RUDD: Well I don't accept the criticism that is often reported. Let me put it in these terms: Copenhagen, despite all the negative publicity about what occurred on the floor, what was the reality of the Copenhagen Accord, which was agreed to?

Firstly, they agreed for the first time that we had to keep temperature increases as a world within two degree centigrade.

For the first time we agreed that developed and developing countries should have a role in doing that, not just developed countries, and very mindful of the significant footprint of China and India and other emerging economies.

Thirdly for the first time we agreed on a global system of measurement and verification and reporting.

These were breakthroughs.

Then what happened in Cancun last year was that these agreements and the Copenhagen Accord were entrenched in the formal legal machinery of the United Nations framework Convention on Climate Change. These are three significant breakthroughs.

And there is a fourth, which is to release a faster finance of some 30 billion dollars for the poorest and most fragile economies around the world, for the poorest and most fragile countries around the world, including small island states.

So there is still much work to be done between now and Durban, and I know that President Zuma is very mindful of what his presidency or his foreign minister's presidency of the conference must still produce. And we need a global outcome on climate change because all of our futures, wherever we are in the world, depend on getting this right.

ALEXANDER STUBB: Great, we're now in the situation where I need to stay on very good terms with my President and that entails that Kevin should be there on time.

KEVIN RUDD: Thanks very much.

END

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