Joint press conference with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt

Subjects: Australia-Swedish relations, Climate Change, International security challenges, IMF.

Transcript, E&OE, proof only

Stockholm, Sweden

18 May 2011

Carl Bildt: Let me say that it is a true pleasure to have Kevin Rudd, Foreign Minister of Australia, here.

You might think that we see each other virtually never - that is not the case. As a matter of fact we see each other fairly regularly at the different international meetings that we are attending, be it in relation to Greece or Libya or Afghanistan or climate change because we are both two countries with a rather active global engagement and that means that as Foreign Ministers we meet across the globe.

That being said it is a pleasure to see you here in Sweden, coming back to Sweden because you served here as a young diplomat and laid the foundations for the relationship between our two countries.

This has been an occasion to be able to catch up on regional issues in Europe, regional issues in Asia and the state of the bilateral relationship which is far stronger than you might think. It is one of our biggest export markets, it is booming business, it is a strong component in the link between Sweden and Australia.

You will be here for the entire day with a big seminar, so that will give you the possibility to inform many others – you will see the King after this, I think – to engage with you to further deepen an already most important relationship.

Kevin Rudd: OK. Tack skall du ha, Carl (thank you, Carl).

It is good to be back in Stockholm. It is good to be back in Sweden.

Sweden has changed a little bit in the last 30 years, I have discovered. When I was first here as a young diplomat the debate of the day was tracking down Soviet U-boats in the Stockholm archipelago. Things have changed.

If I would have asked 30 years ago about the possibility of Sweden being a member of the European Union, I think people would have laughed. So there are these dramatic transformations since then.

What has not changed is my own view that Sweden then as now is overwhelmingly a force for good in the world.

We work with Sweden throughout the United Nations family on multiple challenges, whether it is on the challenges of climate change, or the challenges of arms control and disarmament or the challenges that we now face also with development through our respective aid agencies around the world, but also increasingly in the Middle East.

Australia is a member of the Libya contact group. We met recently with colleagues in Rome. We are not a military contributor, but we are currently the third largest humanitarian contributor after both the United States and the European Union.

The discussions I have had with Carl this morning was focused on regional developments in East Asia and the West Pacific, but also in this part of the world as well.

We value that exchange across, shall we say, continental Asia.

Secondly, we have a common contribution to the world as long standing continuing democracies. There is not that many in the world. But also strong economies which are active in supporting other developing economies in the world. Bilaterally we have a strong economic relationship as well and we wish to continue that.

I have been told, by the way, by Carl that this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the Australia-Sweden Chamber of Commerce.

That is good, and that in itself just shows that Australia and Sweden have been doing business for a long, long, long time and may that continue in the future.

Finally, I am also here together with other members of the Secretary General of the UN’s High Level Panel for Global Sustainability.

We met in the two last days in Helsinki discussing our report the UN Secretary General wishes us to deliver in the lead up to the Rio + 20 Summit about how we deal with the challenges of sustainable development more than 20 years after the Brundtland report was given on this back in the 1980s.

His Majesty the King continues the debate on that today with the Panel Members and a number of Nobel Laureates from around the world and of course I am pleased to participate in that. Finally, I took a walk this morning along Strandvägen – it has not changed – I walked up Banérgatan – it has not changed – I went up to Banérgatan 51 – it has not changed.

It is wonderful to be back here in Stockholm, to be here in a city that I do love, having spent several years here with my wife living here at my first posting when I was a very young man.

Now Carl and I are just young men.

Carl Bildt: That is what we call diplomacy! OK.

Question: Mr Rudd, I am from Swedish Television. As for climate change, how badly is Australia now hit by climate change? We see all these pictures with fires and so on.

Kevin Rudd: I think, in Australia no one seriously disputes the science of climate change.

We have had extreme weather events. There will always be a debate about individual weather events, but it is clear according to the predictions that extreme weather events are one of the consequences of climate change and we have certainly been hit by extreme weather events in recent times.

That means that we have to make the outcome of the upcoming UN conferences a success.

I was in the green room in Copenhagen two years ago trying to negotiate an outcome there – the Copenhagen Accord - that was tough. In Cancun recently, the Mexicans did a great job. But there is much to be done. I think countries like Sweden and Australia – I spent some time with your Minister, Gunilla Carlsson, yesterday in Helsinki – and we all work very closely on this.

Time for the planet continues to run out. It may not be on the front pages of the newspapers every day, but I think the next generation, our grandchildren will judge us badly if we do not bring this to conclusion.

Question: What kind of adjustment have you done locally in Australia? You have had lots of floods for example.

Kevin Rudd: Well. Australia is a vast country. If you go from London to Moscow, that it is about how far it is from Sydney to Perth. So we have a continent of vast climatic extremes, desert conditions, dry conditions, tropical conditions etc era. When we talk of extreme weather events, we see all manifestations of this in Australia.

So obviously one of the things we have to tend to is the future of our Murray River system which has been under considerable stress in recent years and that has required a new role for governments on how to manage scarcity. Then in the last couple of years we have had unprecedented floods, so this presents challenges to plans.

But we can debate the developments from one year to the next, but the strategic challenge for all around the globe, whether it is the melting of the polar ice cap in the arctic, whether it is about what is happening in Antarctica – Carl, you have recently been in Greenland to meet the Arctic Council – this affects all. Seeing the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the potential recommendations there affects 20 to 30 million people – and these are not remote prospects for many of our colleagues around the world.

Question: Why are there so many Swedish companies in Australia and so few Australian companies in Sweden?

Kevin Rudd: First thing I would say – and this is no comment on the Swedish economy – but the Australian economy has always been open to foreign business from around the world and companies from around the world. I recently talked with the Austrian Foreign Minister and their tale is similar. I was yesterday with President Halonen in Finland, their tale is similar. Tomorrow I will be with Jens Stoltenberg in Norway, I am sure their tale is similar.

Historically Australian investment and commercial activity has spread right across Asia. We are deeply engaged in the economies of East Asia. And it is not just China, South Korea and Japan but Southeast Asia across South Asia and in to the Middle East.

But I think there is a challenge for Australian business. This is an age of Globalisation. The imperatives of geography apply less and less and less.

Here up in the Nordic countries we have an economy of about one and a half trillion I presume - we are a one point three trillion dollar economy - so when we look at a critical mass of these economies, we should look more at this as a challenge. I think we are overcoming a historical mindset in Australia where we focused primarily on the Asia Pacific. I think globalisation and new technologies must now change that.

I would like to see more Australian trade and investment delegations here. And we have one from the Europe Australian Business Council coming here to Stockholm next month.

Carl Bildt: As I said, it is a very vital economic relationship. Australia is the third largest export market for Swedish companies outside of Europe, after the United States and China. And if I look at the figures for last year we see that our imports from Australia are increasing far faster than our exports to Australia.

Kevin Rudd: That is nice. But we are not mercantilists.

Question: Talking about global bodies such as the UN etc era and the position of Sweden and Australia in aid, regional aid and re-development and help for other countries both economically and politically, the obvious global body that is in the news for the moment is the IMF and I wonder whether either of you have an opinion on whether or not the IMF has been damaged by what is happening, and do you think, Mr Kahn-Strauss should now resign?

Carl Bildt: (inaudible)

I find that, when I saw the newspapers this morning, I think that's what we think an untouchable matter.

That Egypt is now asking for help from the IMF, if that happens, which I hope it does, we should be ready to augment that help as well, because the stability in the Egyptian economy is very important for the evolution of democracies there which is of course very important development in the Arab world.

So the IMF remains a very key institution for us to continue to function.

Kevin Rudd: Let’s be very clear about that.

The IMF has been around since Bretton Woods and this is an important institution for Sweden and Australia. This is a robust institution which has been through a range of difficult challenges over the years.

The second point I'd make is the IMF global role plus the global financial crisis is now more important than it was before.

The last debate we had at G20 level on changing the quota arrangements to the greater role of China and others means the IMF is no longer the state bridge to shall we say the “Western economies”, and we have a greater role in Chinese and others. Therefore, it continues to play a significant role globally that it is sufficiently robust in itself to deal with any external challenges.

Final point I want to make in relation to Carl's remark just now about Egypt is that the international community has a combined responsibility to support our good friends in Cairo in what is an extraordinarily difficult time.. This is the fulcrum of the Middle East, and the fulcrum to the Arab world therefore it is upon us to provide practical support to our friends in Egypt. This is a difficult year but to have presidential and parliamentary elections is fundamental.

And finally the Arab world, that we did not discuss this in detail this morning, we follow with intense interest unfolding events in Syria where the regime is engaged in acts of violence against its own people which are breathtaking.

END

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