28 April 1997 TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER
THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP
ADDRESS TO STATE DINNER
IN HONOUR OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN
MR RYUTARO HASHIMOTO
E O E
Mr and Mrs Hashimoto, Mr Tim Fischer, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia-, Mr
Kim Beazley, the Leader of the Opposition-, my other parliamentary colleagues;, your
excellencies, distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen.
It Is a special pleasure to welcome to Australia the Prime Minister of Japan. I welcome
him as the leader of a nation with which Australia has developed very deep and close
and important relationships over the last 40 years. I do so in the fortieth year since the
signing of that very important milestone in the relationship between Australia and
Japan and that is the commerce agreement of 1957. And I will come to the importance
of that agreement and the part that it has played in laying the foundation of what is
Australia's most important economic relationship in a moment. On a personal note, it
is a pleasure for me to return the great and warm hospitality that the Prime Minister
extended to me last year when I visited Tokyo. I welcome Mrs Hashimoto as well,
and can I say if they revisit Australia, and I certainly hope they do, I am certain that
they will choose to visit us on another occasion and come from a different direction.
You see, they celebrated their wedding anniversary on the 27th of April and they came
from the United ( applause).. well, I don't know that Mrs Hashimoto is going to
applaud quite as warmly about what I am about to say. You see they left the United
States on the 26th of April and crossed the international date line and succeeded in
missing their wedding anniversary. I think there is some diplomatic price that will be
paid somewhere for that. It certainly ought not to be that of our very charming
Japanese ambassador Mr Sarto, who is very warmly and well regarded in the Canberra
community.
But to both of you a very warm Australian welcomne is extended, and can I say that all
Australians will share the sense of relief that I know the Prime Minister and the rest of
the Japanese nation feel about the successful resolution of the very difficult hostage
crisis in Peru.
There is of course no nation in the world with which Australia has a deeper, a richer or
more important economic association than Australia has with Japan. It really began in
earnest when the former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Sir John McEwen, with
great courage at the time pioneered the Japan/ Australia commerce agreement in 1957.
From then the relationship has grown and deepened and diversified, Australia and
Japan have a very close and complementary relationship. Japan is undeniably
Australia's best market. It is a market that's built not only on exports of minerals, but
also a market built upon a very diversified economic association. And of course the
relationship between Australia and Japan epitomises the modern commitment of
successive Australian governments of both political persuasions to the economic and
political association that Australia has developed and will continue to develop with the
nations of the Asia Pacific region. Australia and Japan are both full participants in the
Asia Pacific region. Each of our nations makes its own particular contribution to those
associations. I welcome Mr Hashimoto as a Prime Minister of Japan who has displayed great
political courage and particular political skills. He has embarked upon a very dynamic
and important economic and administrative reform programme. He has been a selfstarter
in economic reform within Japan. It has been his personal conviction that
outward looking economic reforms are important to Japans future rather than a
response to outside pressure. He showed particular diplomatic skill in negotiating a
successful resolution of outstanding matters between the United States and Japan over
the Okinawa bases. And the joint declaration of the Prime Minister of Japan and
President Clinton in May of 1996 gave contemporary and fresh expression and an
enduring quality to the relationship, important as it is to us and to the rest of the region
between the United States and Japan.
There are many attitudes that Australia and Japan share in common. Both of us
appreciate the importance of our respective alliances with the United States. Both of
us value the continued presence, the fulsome presence of the United States in the Asia
Pacific region. Both of us respect and support the overarching importance of the
APEC association. It is the most visible and the most important expression of our
common destiny as partners in the Asia Pacific region. And both of us appreciate the
importance of an effective engagement of China, not only in the affairs of the region
but also in the affairs of the entire world.
There is little doubt that a sensible embrace of China as a full partner in the Asia
Pacific region on proper terms and with proper understandings is an important foreign
policy goal of both our countries. There are areas of course where we share common
concerns and as I indicated earlier today, one of the matters that I will be canvassing
with the Prime Minister in our discussions tomorrow will be the particular concerns
that Australia has about the implications of the proposals for climate change. Australia
is in a particularly difficult position on this issue. Perhaps uniquely, Australia is a
developed country which is simultaneously a net exporter of energy and it is very
important that the very legitimate concerns of Australia and Australians, and not only
of the Australian business community but particularly including them be known not
only by Japan but also by our other trading partners. I would like to take this
opportunity tonight Prime Minister to re-affirm the very strong support that my
government extends to Japan's aspiration to become a permanent member of the
Security Council of the United Nations. That has been a policy position of a number
of governments in Australia for some years and I want to make it plain in your
presence that my Government will continue to give very strong support to your
aspirations in that regard. I have spoken Mr Prime Minister of the very important
economic and political links that exist between our two countries. They are important
and your visit to Australia will help to further cement those links. They will help to
remind Australians of just how valuable a market Japan continues to be for our
country. They will help to bring home to Australians the long continuity of the
contribution that Japanese foreign investment has made to the development of the
Australian economy and it is an opportunity for me as Prime Minister of Australia to
emphasise the continued importance of foreign investment in this country and to reject
some of the simplistic criticisms that are from time to time made of the role of foreign
investment in the development of Australia. And I want to make it clear that without
the constant flow of capital over the years from nations such as Japan and the United
States and Britain and others who have invested in Australia, the standard of living that
we now enjoy in this country would not be nearly so high.
But important as those economic and political links undoubtedly are, there is of course
another dimension to the rich relationship between our two countries. And that
dimension of course is made up of the people to people links that over the years have
developed. Last year 800 000 Japanese people visited Australia. The cultural links,
the sister to sister city links, the educational links, the exchange visits, the growing
recognition of the importance of Japan, the enormous growth in the number of
Australian students who have learnt and can now speak Japanese and the astonishing
way in which the knowledge of and the teaching of and an understanding of the
Japanese language has supplanted that of any other foreign language in Australia over
the last 20 years is an illustration that it is not just a dollar-yen relationship, it is also a
relationship which is built on a growing mutual appreciation of different cultures and a
growing understanding of a shared destiny in our part of the world.
Can I say to you Mr Prime Minister that I enjoyed your company immensely when I
was in Tokyo. I found you a very warm and engaging host. I found the welcome that
you extended to me and my party very touching indeed and I have looked forward very
enthusiastically to the opportunity of welcoming you as Prime Minister to Australia. I
hope you can come again, and come again as Prime Minister. You and your wife will
always be welcome here, not only as the Prime Minister of Japan but also for your own
very delightful personalities. I very much hope that you both enjoy your brief but
important visit to Australia and I have much pleasure in inviting the Leader of the
Opposition Mr Kim Beazley to endorse my remarks.
Thank you.