THIRD MEETING OF THE ASIAN
AND PACIFIC COUNCIL
Opening Speech by the Prime Minister, 1. 5 AUG i968
Rt. Hon. J. G. Gorton, Mp
Canberra, ACT 3AR'
JULY 1968
It is my privilege to address you this morning on what is an
historic occasion for the Australian Government and people.
On behalf of the Australian Government, it is my pleasure
to welcome to Australia the distinguished representatives of the Republic
of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the
Philippines, Thailand, and the Republic of Viet Nam as well as the
observer from the kingdom of Laos.
The Asian and Pacific Council is a young organisation, having
been established in Seoul just two years ago. It has had a promising
beginning and it is the Australian Government's conviction that it will have
an increasingly important role to play in the future of the region.
ASPAC includes a representative group of significant countries
in the area and we in Australia are proud to be members of it.
As a regional organisation, ASPAC has some unique
characteristics. It includes countries from North Asia, South-East Asia
and the South Pacific, but it do-es not include countries from outside the
region. A number of other regional organisations do include
as full members the great powers from outside the region and it is right
and proper that this should be so. The region in which we all live will
for a long time to come need the help and support of the adv anced nations
outside it. But the existence of ASPAC testifies to the fact that there ip
a growing recognition in our region that in the long run our destinies will
be determined by our own efforts.
Since the end of World War 11 there has been a steady growth
of regional consciousness in many parts of the world. Increasingly
governments and peoples have realised that their individual efforts can
be made more fruitful if they work closely with their neighbours.
We now understand perhaps more clearly than in the past
that goodwill between neighbours, and a readiness to look forward to
friendliness and co-operation rather than backwards to old hostilities, is an
indispensable requirement for that progress towards the decent standards
of living to which all our peoples asp4:-e. We must have cordial co-operation
among ourselves and it is to be promotion of this co-operation to which the
Asian and Pacific Council is dedicated.
The need for regional co-operation was recognised in the
Asian and Pacific region as early as anywhere in the world, yet in some
ways the translation of this into practical action has not proceeded as
rapidly as it has elsewhere. 9/ 2
-2
The reason for this perhaps is that the peoples of our region
have rich and diverse cultures, and in recent times they have followed*
very different historical paths. In some cases their links have been with
European countries rather than with their neighbours. But now the basic
facts of geography and economics are reasserting themselves and none Of
us can doubt that ultimately the future of this region lies in the hands of:
the peoples and countries within it, so many of whom are represented here
today. It is true that before ASPAC was founded, bodies like the Colombo
Plan and the regional commissions and institutions set up under the United
Nations played an important part in stimulating the sftse of a regional
community. Indeed, if you cast your minds back, two remarkable achievements
in regional economic co-operation that come immediately to mind are
the Asian Development Bank and the Mekong Development Project; and a
complex network of other regional activities has already been developed.
The principal purpose of all these existing activities has been to apply to the
development of the area the resources and knowledge available from countries
jutside the area. This is where ASPAC differs somewhat from previously
established regional organisations. Its main concern is to promote
co-operation among the countries inside the region itself and to develop the
potential strength within it through our own efforts.
The prospects for practical co-operation of this kind are
steadily increasing. For example, the rapid economic growth in several
ASPAC countries will help to ensure that trade between them continues to
grow. It is important that the rate of growth of a number of developing
countries in ASPAC is higher than that of all but a few countries outside
thiis region. The annual growth rates among the majority of ASPAC countries
ranges from 5 per cent to more than 8 per cent. This compares with an
approximate average of about 4 per cent for ' he total Asian and Far East
region. Our own Australian trade with ASPAC countries is growing
rapidly. In 1966/ 67 about one quarter of our total trade was with our
fellow members of ASPAC.
We are particularly pleased that ASPAC countries are beginning
to benefit from the Australian scheme for tariff preference on certain goods
manufactured by developing countries, and we hope that they will tak-e
increasing advantage of the scheme and the opportunities which it presents.
Economic and social progress can of course only be maintained
in our region in circumstances of peace and stability. Unfortunately, the
region is one which at the present time in history is most exposed to threats
of direct and indirect aggression. While these threats exist, we must
welcome the support of our major allies in contributing to the security of
the region but must at the same time do our best to provide for our defence
through our own efforts, and we should do our best to ensure that no
internal differences of opinion upset the peace and stability which the region
requires. / 3
-2
The reason for this perhaps is that the peoples of our region
have rich and diverse cultures, and in recent times they have followed
very different historical paths. In some cases their links have been with
European countries rather than with their neighbours. But now the basic
facts of geography and economics are reasserting themselves and none of
us can doubt that ultimately the future of this region lies in the hands of
the peoples and countries within it, so many of whom are represented here
today. It is true that before ASPAC was founded, bodies like the Colombo
Plan and the regional commissions and institutions set up under the United
Nations played an important part in stimulating the sose of a regional
community. Indeed, if you cast your minds back, two remarkable achievements
in regional economic co-operation that come immediately to mind are
the Asian Development Bank and the Mekong Development Project; and a
complex networlk of other regional activities has already been developed.
The principal purpose of all these existing activities has been to apply to the
development of the area the. resources and knowledge available from countries
jutside the area. This is where ASPAC differs somewhat from previously
established regional organisations. Its main concern is to promote
co-operation among the countries inside the region itself and to develop the
potential strength within it through our own efforts.
The prospects for practical co -operation of this kind are
steadily increasing. For example, the rapid economic growth in several
ASPAC countries will help to ensure that trade between them continues to
grow. It is important that the rate of growth of a number of developing
countries in ASPAC is higher than that of all but a few countries outside
this region. The annual growth rates among the majority of ASPAC countries
ranges from 5 per cent to more than 8 per cent. This compares with an
approximate average of about 4 per cent for ' he total Asian and Far East
region. Our own Australian trade with ASPAC countries is growing
rapidly. In 1966/ 67 about one quarter of our total trade was with our
fellow members of ASPAC.
We are particularly pleased that ASPAC countries are beginning
to benefit from the Australian scheme for tariff preference on certain goods
manufactured by developing countries, and we hope that they will tak&-e
increasing advantage of the scheme and the opportunities which it presents.
Economic and social progress can of course only be maintained
in our region in circumstances of peace and stability. Unfortunately, the
region is one which at the present time in history is most exposed to threats
of direct and indirect aggression. While these threats exist, we must
welcome the support of our major allies in contributing to the security of
the region but must at the same time do our best to provide for our defence
through our own efforts, and we should do our best to ensure that no
internal differences of opinion upset the peace and stability which the region
requires. / 3
-3
Lt may be appropriate for mre to say that Australia has
long recognised her responsibilities for contributing to the security of
the region. Indeed, since the end of the Second World War, the youth of
Australia has participated in the fight against aggression in Korea, in
Malaysia and in Viet Nam, and its armed forces have made a small but
valuable contribution to the security of other countries in the region.
ASPAC is in no sense a security organisation and in the view
of the Australian Government it should not attempt to become one; even
though we recognise that if our efforts under ASPAC to promote the welfare
of the region are to succeed means it is necessary for the region to be
secure from aggression. The answer to aggression is not, of course, to be found
only in the military arena. Military strength itself flows from a prosperous
and progressive community, but so does political stability and freedom from
subversion, and in order to achieve that prospercui s and progressive
community 4ad that political stability,. neighbourly co-operation in paths
of peace is we believe, essential,
So in ASPAC, we are seeking to establish a close comradeship
and a practical working co-operation in the political, economic, cultural
and social fields. We also will maintain an open door through which other
countries in the region can join us whenever they wish to do so. This, of
course, is a matter for their free choice.
But we hope, however, that as the real objectives of the
organisation are increasingly appreciated and understood, there will be a
growing inclination in all the countries in the region to realise the value
of the kind of co-operation that ASPAC stands for.
What we are seeking to establish is a genuine and deep
understanding in all aspects of our relations of one another's points of view
and of one another's problems. None of us is seeking to force the adoption
of a common view upon others, but rather to develop a common approach
to those problems which all of us share. In short, to identify the problems
which are common and to seek to discover whether there is a common
solution which we can together apply.
One of the great advantages indeed of ASPAC is that it is not
an organisation which meets to make proposals which are to be voted upon,
to have decisions which are to be done by majority rule, but rather to meet
in order to discuss, to identify and to see whether there are common
approaches which can solve the problems of the region.
We have already become in ASPAC a valuable forum for the
exchange of those views between government leaders and the officials of
our countries. They meet together not only in this Council, but regu larly
between Council meetings in the Standing Committees of ASPAC, and at
numerous international conferences, they take the '-pportunity of holding
informal consultations among the delegations from this region, representing
each one of the countries here present.
I believe the organisation must be congratulated on the
practical way in which it has set about its task,, s. During the past year,
my col-league, the Minister for External Affairs has chaired the regular
meetings of the Standing Committee and those meetings have been most
valuable in promoting that kind of understanding of which I have spoken and
which is the basic objective of this organisation. / 4
-4-
Durirg the year, the ASPAC Registry of Expert Services has
been established in Canberra and is now in operation, and at this Council
meeting, Ministers will be asked to give their final endorsement to the
agreement establishing the ASPAC Cultural and Social Centre in Seoul.
I have no doubt that further projects of this kind will be developed, and
each will have some contribution to make to those objectives of which I
have spoken to you this morning.
I would like to conclude by reiterating my welcome to the
distinguished representatives here today, and by expressing the hope and
confidence that your deliberations during this Third Asian and Pacific
Council Meeting will further strengthen the ties that unite us, I hnpe by
seeking, peering down the paths of the future, to put into your minds a
vision of this region with its people, politically free and economically
prosperous, working together for the good of all human beings in the region,
perhaps partly as a result of conferences such as these and of the work put
into those conferences by the representatives of the countries who are here
today and by the backing they will get from the ordinary men and women
who in this region, and perhaps ultimately in the world, have a common goal
which ASPAC seeks.
I declare the meeting open.