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PRIME MINISTER:
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
President Menem and I have had a very useful discussion for the last
45 minutes. I would like, Sir, on behalf of the Australian Government
to publicly welcome you to our country for the first time. And to
remark that we are delighted that you have brought such a large number
of Ministers, seven in number, and two Provincial Secretaries and
also a very high level business delegation.
As you all know Argentina and Australia have a number of very strong
common interests. One of those is undoubtedly the common membership
of the Cairns Group and the direct interest we both have in securing
a better trade deal.
I am delighted that during the time of your visit we have had the
opportunity, through our Ministers, to sign a number of agreements
that will lay the foundation of an even stronger relationship. And
I will say a few words about those agreements in a moment. But Mr
President you may wish to make some introductory remarks.
PRESIDENT MENEM:
Thank you very much Mr Prime Minister.
We are coming to the end of a very successful visit in Australia and
I have only words of gratitude for the Government and the people of
Australia for the warmth and affection with which we have been received.
I was telling the Prime Minister that two Argentine Presidents have
come to Australia to visit, my predecessor, Dr Raul Alfonsin. But
we have not yet had the visit of an Australian Prime Minister to Argentina.
I hope to have your visit soon so we can continue discussing these
agreements and other agreements we must sign, one of them being the
double taxation agreement.
We have an agreement on sports co-operation it is being signed today,
an agreement on mining, on agricultural co-operation and on aviation.
The number of flights between Argentina and Australia will be increased
flying over the South Pole, giving us a possibility of having a greater
exchange between Australia and Argentina and more trade and also a
very important industry for both countries such as tourism.
This is what I wanted to say Mr Prime Minister and thank you very
much for giving me the chance of saying all this. And now I will give
you the floor again Mr Prime Minister if there is anything more that
you would like to say.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Mr President, just two other things.
The first of those is, to remark that during your term Australian
investment in Argentina has jumped from about $20 million to $2.2
billion. One of the notable areas of investment, of course, has been
in the media where Prime Television and Channel 9 Argentina have signed
an agreement. And there are also, of course, very extensive mining
interests.
And finally could I put on record my appreciation of the very strong
support Argentina has given to the allied effort to contain Saddam
Hussein. As you know Australian forces are still in the Gulf and we
greatly appreciate your contribution.
That is all I have to say, Sir, perhaps we could have one or two questions
from the ladies and gentlemen of the media. We could take an Australian
question first.
JOURNALIST:
Mr President, why has your country never arrested, tried or punished
those responsible for bombings almost four years ago of the Jewish
Centre in Buenos Aires where more than 80 people died? And the earlier
bombing of the Israeli Embassy when more than 30 lost their lives?
PRESIDENT MENEM:
Thank you very much for your question. These two terrorist attacks
are being investigated. It is not easy to find those responsible.
We are following several leads and I believe that we have given Israel
the best possibilities to come to our country and to work in this
investigation through their security organisations and intelligence
agencies. And not only that, we have given them the possibility of
having access to all the files, the police files in Argentina and
all the files that have remained in Argentina about the Nazis.
And we have opened all our banking accounts so that an indepth investigation
can be performed as to the resources that could have come to Argentina
after the Second World War. And Argentine co-operation has been full
in this aspect. We have had the CIA, the FBI, Scotland Yard, all the
intelligence services have co-operated to try to find those responsible
for these attacks. And I would also like to remind you that there
are several attacks that have taken place in Israel, perhaps many
years ago and they have not yet found those responsible. How long
did it take before they found those responsible for the attack against
the athletes at the Olympic villa in Germany many, many years ago.
Of course this is not to justify what we are doing in Argentina but
we want you to know that we are investigating and I am sure that we
will find a solution after that investigation. And you know that some
people are already under arrest. Thank you.
JOURNALIST (Argentine press):
This question was not translated.
JOURNALIST:
Mr President, Geoffrey Barker Australian Financial Review. Is Argentina
satisfied that Australia is being sufficiently aggressive through
the Cairns Group in pursuing agricultural trade liberalisation in
all forums?
PRESIDENT MENEM:
Not only in the Cairns Group but before that within GATT and during
the GATT rounds Argentina and Australia have shared in this battle
and as we were saying with the Prime Minister, we will have to continue
this battle. And the attitude taken by Australia has been aggressive
enough and we have to continue fighting within the WTO to obtain more
equitable distribution of the system of agriculture in the world.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much.
[Ends]