ASIAT TOUR 1967. C' 1 TBODIA
Speech by the Prime Minister, Mir. Harold Holt at
Gala Dinner at Phnom Penh 29th March, 1967.
Over recent years there has oeen a growing awareness
in Australia of our increasing involvement in developments
occurring in South East Asia and the Pacific. While some of
these developments have related to matters of national integrity
and security, there have emerged also positive and mutually
beneficial developments in the fields of trade and commerce.
This is, perhaps most strikingly demonstrated in the
transformation which has occurred in Australia's relations with
Japan. We fought as enemies in the Second 7orld 1' ar but after
the peace we quickly found a basis for friendship and a rapidly
growing trade between our countries began to develop. This has
moved so quickly that today Japan has oecome the largest
importer in the world in value of Australian exports while we
have become the second or third largest importer of exports
from Japan. This, I believe, is illustrative of the improved
relations and mutual benefits which can flow from the establishment
of conditions of security and stability associated with peaceful
economic progress. " Oherever we look in this general area today we find
that in those countries aule to enjoy the blessings of peace,
rapid progress is being achieved. . e find these countries
absorued in xreat tasks of nation buildin, and growth, and South
Last Asia, which has shaken off its colonial past, is able to
employ to an expanding degree the benefits of modern science
and technology. ie in Australia have done our Dest to assist by
providing materials equipment and techniques. In Cambodia's
case, for example, I understand that the irrigation pumps which
we have been aole to provide have been a considerable success,
and more will oe coming to you. Jie have done this gladly
feeling a genuine sense of cooperation with friendly countries
in the region. We strongly uphold the concepts of sovereignty
national self-determination and national independence. Our own
history as a free democratically governed country leads us to do
so. Sixty-six years ago Australia uecame one nation with a
vast continent to develop, and a population of only three million
people. Today, as our population approaches twelve millions, we
take pride in our national growth and the individual Australian
identity we have established. Ours is a friendly country and
Australians will, I think, be acknowledged as friendly people.
We bring warmth and understanding to the national aspirations
of our neighbours we respond readily to warmth and understanding
from them. ' 7e welcome the fact that national -oals today are
centred on the strengthening of domestic institutions, widening
opportunities for our peoples, the development of national resources,
and a more widely shared prosperity spread by programmes of social
justice. There is, we believe, in South East Asia, a common / 2
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acceptance of the need for a more stable environment in the region
within which members can live in peace and amity and work together
in harmony. Australia will participate whole-heartedly in efforts
to reconcile national differences and in the fostering of
cooperative relations. see, for example much value in such
instrumentalities of mutual benefit as the Colombo Plan and the
Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East, and we believe
that Cambodia does also. We see great future promise in the Asian
Development Bank and, as one of ils largest contributors, we hope
to play a full part in its activities. This is Asia's o: n Bank
and w'e believe it will be for the nations of Asia to join together
in making it fully effective.
The harmonious community of developing nations to which
Australia looks forward in the South East Asian region must be
one that is based on general acceptance and respect for differing
national identities, cultures and social and political systems.
For our part Australia has chosen to be a member of
various security treaties relating to the Asian and Pacific areas.
These treaties are defensive in nature, and are designed to
safeguard security and bring stability to the region.
In the pursuit of your naitional interest and the
preservation of your independence, sovereignty and territorial
integrity, Cambodia has adapted policies of neutrality. Astralian
adherence to the principle of respect for national independence
involves recognition of the territorial integrity of the countries
concerned, acceptance of the particular polilical and social
systems prevailing within their domestic jurisdiction, and complete
respect for the national policies of neutrality, and non-alignment,
which countries like Cambodia have adopted. Australians believe
that differences of culture social systems and national policies
can be reconciled by attitudes of mutual understanding, and active
policies of friendship and cooperation.
The present relationship oetween Camoodia and Australia
is a prime example of the success of such policies. Australia
hopes that, through their application on a broader scale diversity
can become a source not of weakness, but of strength not of
discord, but of mutual advantage throughout the South-East Asian
area. It is in this spirit Your Excellencies, Ladies and
Gentlemen, that I ask you to join me in the toast to the health
of the Head of State of Cambodia, His Royal Highness Prince Norodom
Sihanouk and to Madame Sihanouk, to the government and people of
Cambodia, to the continued progress and future prosperity of
Cambodia, and to an ever-closer friendship oetween our two
countries.