E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
PRIME MINISTER:
Yesterday we had the agenda setting meeting. It was very clear that the dominant thing on people’s minds was the worldwide response to the terrorist attacks in September. There was a very clear view from leaders right around the region that everybody turning up at this meeting sends a very important message that the leaders of this region and a significant part of the world leadership was determined to get on with governing and that the wrong response was not to turn up. That was the wrong response.
In fact it’d be giving no secrets away for me to say that the Canadian Prime Minister expressed his disappointment at the postponement of the CHOGM meeting and also the Francophone meeting which was to have taken place admittedly in Beirut only a few weeks ago. And I think there was a general tone from all of us and I expressed the same view myself that it’s very important at a time like this that people turn up and to send a very strong message that the life of the world has got to go on.
The themes that I mentioned in my speech yesterday are themes that I’ll be repeating in my contributions today. There will be a session particularly committed to the issue of terrorism and I’ll be making a contribution to that. I would expect the meeting to issue a communiqué which unequivocally condemns the attacks and expresses a commitment to work together to counter them. There are clearly within the region a range of views concerning the way in which countries can respond. Some are involved militarily such as Australia and Canada, and others involved in different ways. But there’s certainly a very strong unanimity of opinion and importantly a very strong view that the fact that this meeting is taking place here in Shanghai - a very important meeting in the history of China incidentally, I can’t recall offhand a more significant meeting having taken place in China since 1949 - I think that itself is quite important as far as Australia is concerned.
So that’s really all I’ve got to say. I will be very happy to have a news conference later in the day in appropriate attire to answer your questions.
JOURNALIST:
You had informal talks with President Bush. What did he say?
PRIME MINISTER:
We talked in a very general fashion but I expect to have further discussions with him today. But can I just say in relation to that I won’t be giving to anybody, and I wouldn’t expect to receive from him, a running commentary on all of the detailed military planning by the United States. Certainly things that affect Australia I’d expect to know about. But at the moment there are no Australians involved. There will be and clearly the level of detail will be much greater. But there seems to be, I’m not suggesting in your question Laurie, but there seems to be from some an expectation that we get a running commentary each day on what the American military are planning. I would not expect to get that but I would expect to get things that directly affect Australia. But as I’ve said before I’m not a soldier. He’s not either. And the planning and military execution of these things are, once the political strategy has been laid down and the broad guidelines of the military operation have been approved and the character of the operation has been approved, the day to day shots have got to be called by the military.
JOURNALIST:
How would you describe his demeanor?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well he is confident, but I think he’s a person who is very…..he’s very conscious of the responsibility he bears. But he’s certainly very grateful for the expressions of support from a whole variety of countries. I’m not seeking to only mention Australia. He did make the point yesterday, I think he made it in a number of his presentations, that this is not a fight against Islam and it’s a point that I make again and again. It is not and it’s very important that three countries that are members of APEC, I think there are three where the dominant religion is Islam and the leaders of those three countries are here.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister can you go through some of the practical things that will come out of the Shanghai Accord to combat terrorism?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think there’ll be an emphasis on cooperation in relation to security matters; there’ll be an emphasis on using where appropriate the United Nations; there’ll be an emphasis on working together in relation to communications; there will be a renewed commitment to law enforcement cooperation, the cooperation between law enforcement agencies to deal with terrorism. You’ve got to remember that there are a number of countries in the region, in APEC, that have had the problem of terrorism and it is no….the link between bin Laden and Chechnya, although there are obviously some other issues involved in that war as well, that link has been documented before.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, would you have preferred for the anti-terrorism resolution to have had a direct endorsement of the American led assaults on Osama bin Laden particularly given that Australia is involved?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Jim it was not my expectation that it would. I haven’t really turned my mind to that. I mean I accept that there are a range of views on the way in which countries can cooperate.
JOURNALIST:
There’s the suggestion that it won’t in fact mention Osama bin Laden or the Taliban as direct targets of the conflict. How much do you think [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think in a situation like this given the diversity of the countries represented you’re not going to get something that in an ideal world you yourself would have wanted.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you were chatting away amicably with Megawati as you walked into the photo shoot. What did you talk about and what’s was the mood like between you?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well very good, very good. I talked about my visit and in fact, I mean I’m not seeking to ascribe any particular political significance to this, but on a personal basis our rapport is very good. I appreciated very much the fact that we were able to meet so early and I expect to chat to her again today. We won’t be having a formal bilateral.
JOURNALIST:
Did you get a chance to mention asylum seekers and your concerns about….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let me say more about that issue later on today. But certainly there are no personal difficulties between the President of Indonesia and the Prime Minister of Australia. None whatsoever. I understand some of the challenges she has in her country, and I’m also very much aware of the threat posed by some terrorist links in her own country. And she’s aware of that, we’re aware of that. And it’s not an easy job being President of Indonesia. It is a very challenging job and I’m very much aware of that.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, nice pictures of President Bush patting you on the back last night. They’ll run well back home in the middle of a campaign.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, in your discussions with President Bush did he give you any advice…..did President Bush talk about his own country’s economic prospects….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’ve talked to him on a number of occasions recently about that already. I mean it’s not his…..his view of course is that America was going through some difficulty before the September 11 attack. Clearly that has hurt the American economy. Their expectation, but also importantly Alan Greenspan’s expectation before the terrorist attack was that the American economy would have begun the recovery phase in the first half of next year. Now that’s obviously going to be delayed. But I wouldn’t expect any particular alteration from what he told me on the 10th of September. And subsequently I think we briefly touched on the economy when we spoke several weeks ago. But these things don’t change in a matter of days.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister is the swing to Labor in the ACT election a precursor to what might happen in federal politics?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t know Tom, I don’t. I mean that’s a matter for the commentators. The ACT is sometimes atypical of the rest of Australia. It was in relation to such matters as say the referendum.
JOURNALIST:
Is this the point where you’re supposed to say so what?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m very respectful of all you. Most of you are voters in the ACT so I treat it very seriously.
JOURNALIST:
Are you annoyed that Mark Latham shoved you out of the headlines back home?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don’t want to comment on matters which are between him and those investigating it.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you mentioned earlier about the difficulties that Megawati has with terrorism in her own country and George Bush has also…..
PRIME MINISTER:
Well let me…..groups. I mean I don’t want to overemphasise it. I’m just trying to make the point that I’m not unsympathetic to the fact that it is a very difficult job being President of Indonesia and there are many things that are important to us in the bilateral relationship. But it’s got to be understood that there are many other things which are in overall national terms very important to the Indonesian leadership.
JOURNALIST:
My point though was George Bush has also talked about the spread of terrorism. Would you expect that to come up in the context of the Leaders’ Retreat today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I won’t try and speculate about that. That is a sensitive issue and I don’t want to say anything that provides any complication in the relationship which is important, but has always had it’s difficult phases and I think for some time will.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] prevail on this meeting, will you be ringing Mr Beazley to brief him or….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I would expect to see him at some stage in Perth in the next day or so and I’ll take the opportunity then of chatting to him if he wants to listen, I’m not suggesting he doesn’t - I didn’t mean that rudely – about it. But there would only be an obligation for me to consult him during this meeting if I were entering into some new commitment that was going to bind a future government. And we are of the same mind in relation to the fight against terrorism so I don’t imagine I’d be entering into any commitments which would be binding on him if he were to become prime minister.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you’re meeting with Sir Mekere from PNG later today. Is that going to finalise a deal on boat people at all? Is that what you’re expecting to do?
PRIME MINISTER:
We’ll probably discuss that but there’s been a memorandum of understanding about the location. It’s going to, I think it’s been reported already, going to be at Manus Island. I mean we had a talk about it last night. I don’t know that there’s much more to finalise. He is very supportive of the proposal and he’s conscious that at some stage this issue may become a difficulty for him. I don’t mean because of the agreement with Australia but there could be an illegal immigration problem that affected his own country.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, does Australia support the Chinese effort to set some boundary, some limits for the Americans? The reference to the United States…..
PRIME MINISTER:
Well that hasn’t….well we certainly haven’t supported….we wouldn’t support that. Some limits to what? The United States military action?
JOURNALIST:
Yes….
JOURNALIST:
We wouldn’t support…..or let me say this – it hasn’t come up in our discussions so far and we would not imply that the Americans would exceed reasonable bounds. But as far as our involvement is concerned I’ve said before we have a commitment in relation to action of a particular character concerning a particular area. Obviously if the Americans want to go further than that we’re not automatically committed to that extension. It’s just a question of us then making a decision.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, in the AUSMIN meeting this year there was talk of strategic dialogue between Australia, US and Japan. Has that idea progressed since….?
PRIME MINISTER:
It has begun to progress a little bit at an official level yes. It’s something that I raised with the…..discussed very briefly when I was in Japan a few weeks ago and it’s not something that we further discussed yesterday when I had my meeting if that’s what you’re getting at.
[Ends]