PRIME MINISTER:
Well ladies and gentlemen, today I'll be having a series of bilateral meetings, the first one will be with the Prime Minister of India, who I'll be seeing in a few moments. I'll then see the Prime Minister of Japan and after lunch I will see the Premier of China as well as the Prime Minister of Laos and then later on this afternoon will be the formal meeting at which it is hoped that all the countries attending this gathering will sign the declaration which amongst other things will set in train a two-year negotiation for the development of a Free Trade Agreement between the ASEAN countries, Australia and New Zealand. This is an historic meeting for ASEAN, it's an important meeting, as all of these gatherings are, it underlines how far the countries of this region have progressed and how far our own relations with those countries individually have progressed over the past few years.
Of course the real strength of our relations with the countries in this region are to be found in the substance of our bilateral relationships with each one of them. And by any measure over the past few years those bilateral relationships have improved quite dramatically, none more so than the continued strength of course of our very longstanding trade and political relationship with Japan, Japan remains our best customer and that should not be forgotten. Korea also is a wonderful customer and trading partner of Australia and of course in recent years there's been spectacular growth in the economic relationship between Australia and China. And we are as you know engaged in a scoping study with China to see whether it's possible to develop a Free Trade Agreement, but as I've said on a number of occasions before even if that amounts to nothing in the end, and I'm not saying it will amount to nothing, I'm quite hopeful. Nothing can alter the fact that China is now one of Australia's major customers and I will in the space of a few weeks have had a lengthy bilateral with the President of China in Chile and again with the Premier of China here in Vientiane and that helps to underline just how close and important that relationship has become.
It's also been my third opportunity to see and talk to in the more informal elements of this gathering with the new President of Indonesia, President Yudhoyono who in the past few weeks I've got to know well, I respect a great deal his capacities, I wish him well, it's a very challenging task to be President of such a large country with such challenges, the largest Islamic country in the world and it's important for a whole host of reasons and it's self-evident to all of you that Australia should have very close bilateral relationships with Indonesia. And it's also been an opportunity for me to see again the new Prime Minister of Malaysia, he's not so new anymore, he's been there for a year, and also the relatively new Prime Minister of Singapore. So all in all in the period that has gone by since the election both my visit to Jakarta to attend the inauguration, the APEC visit and this has been a very good opportunity for me early in my fourth term as Prime Minister to reinforce some old and close associations, to further develop some newer ones and to emphasise the critical importance of the bilateral relationships in this region to Australia's economic and political future.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, how big a difference do you think to Australia's economic handling of the economy will the Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think it's going to make a huge, it's not going to transform the relationship, it's just another valuable addition if it comes off. The substance is already there, I mean nothing can alter the importance of those huge markets we have in North Asia, nothing can take away from the real value of our Free Trade Agreement with Thailand or with Singapore or what might emerge in our discussions with Malaysia and China again. But if it can come off it will be a further enhancement. But I've said before I think and the words will be familiar to all of you that we must not make the mistake of benchmarking the quality of our relationship with either the region or individual countries in this region according to whether or not we attend a certain number of meetings or whether we sign particular pieces of paper. It is the substance of the relationship and if nothing more happened you couldn't argue that we don't have great substance in our relationship with the countries that I've mentioned.
JOURNALIST:
If we're not planning to attack anyone in the future, as Alexander Downer said, and they're not planning to attack us, why won't we sign a peace and co-operation pact?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we're certainly not planning to attack anybody, let's make that very clear. Look it's an agreement which governments of both sides of politics in Australia in the past have not seen as appropriate for us to sign. There is a view that is inconsistent with some of the terms of some of our other obligations. We'll continue to study it but we're not disposed to signing it.
JOURNALIST:
Why do you think that countries like Japan and South Korea (inaudible) with the United States (inaudible) government is saying...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Jim with all of these things every country makes up its own mind and we decide what we think is best for Australia and Japan decides what Japan thinks is best for Japan and I respect that and they respect it in me. It doesn't alter the substance of our relationship and that's what really matters and I think we should not get hung up on whether or not we agree to a particular treaty which was designed and came out of a period of time and an attitude of thinking which is not necessarily as relevant today as it was then.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Prime Minister, one of the reasons that you haven't given, or that your Foreign Minister hasn't given, for not signing it is in relation to the ability to criticise Burma. What's your reaction to the news that Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest has been extended for another year and will you be raising that this afternoon since you are in a position where you can make criticisms of individual...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we certainly won't feel constrained in expressing a view about what is happening in Burma, certainly not.
JOURNALIST:
Will you (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I will handle that in an appropriate way.
JOURNALIST:
What is your view?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'm critical of it. Of course I am.
JOURNALIST:
What's your reaction to her extended house arrest?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I mean like all of these situations we want democratic outcomes, we also have to respect the limitations of what we can do, Mr Downer has expressed very strong views in relation to this situation in the past and I certainly echo them.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Downer's also said that he thinks Australia, India and New Zealand should have as many summit meetings as possible with ASEAN countries, we heard yesterday them talking about a new East Asian community for some. Is this something that we'd like to be involved in ideally?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we love meetings. And we go to as many as we can and I would certainly welcome any further opportunity. But I don't think the quality of our relationship with New Zealand, or indeed India, is going to stand or fall on whether yet another meeting evolves. And if it does and we're part of it that's fine, if it doesn't then I don't think anything is lost.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, you said before that you would, I think you used the word study the TAC, if you can be I guess persuaded that Australia's interests in Asia would be enhanced if Australia, if you decided to support the TAC, would the Government then be persuaded to embrace it?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well you always continue to study things but I think I've explained what our position is.
JOURNALIST:
Have the Americans raised any objections to us about signing...
PRIME MINISTER:
No, but Tom the people who are most interested in this are before me at this very moment. Can I tell you the issue has not been raised at a leader level by any of the ASEAN countries, and certainly the Americans haven't, not with me, I mean I can't speak for the hundreds and thousands of foreign service people around the world who might late in the evening raise this with one of their colleagues from another country.
JOURNALIST:
... about it last night?
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
No-one talked to you about it last night?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, they didn't, no.
JOURNALIST:
Who did you spend time with?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I had a very lengthy discussion with the Indian Prime Minister, we arrived first and we had a very pleasant chat and I had not met him before and it was a very good opportunity and in advance of our more formal meeting today. I had a very lengthy discussion with the Chinese Premier. I also, at dinner, had a lengthy discussion with the Prime Minister of Thailand who is a very good friend of mine and my wife spent a very pleasant evening talking to the President of the Philippines and I met all the other leaders in different ways. But it was a particularly good opportunity to meet the new Indian Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST:
Did you ask Mr Thaksin about the situation in the south of Thailand?
PRIME MINISTER:
We talked about a variety of things, I'm not going to go into all the details of a private discussion.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) one of the country's where Australia's trade relations (inaudible) in the last year or so. Can you see the way of, actual way of improving Australia further...
PRIME MINISTER:
What another treaty or agreement? Well I think the best thing is to have a good understanding of what the opportunities are and what the complementarities are. I mean one of the areas of course is education. We don't do quite as well, we're number three as an overseas destination, there is still a preference of Indian students for Britain and the United States, I mean no disrespect to them but I would like to see some more done on that front if we could and obviously our energy resources must have potential for India, although there's a bit of a pull from the Middle East because of the geography of the place.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, do you support the idea of East Asian communities compromising of...
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I support any opportunity that can be taken, either multilaterally or bilaterally to improve relationships and friendships between the countries of the region. I'm not hung up about process, what really matters is the substance of the friendship between two countries or between two people or a group of countries or a group of people and anything that can be done to advance that I certainly will.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, is there any sense Australia could be isolated by not signing the treaty and...
PRIME MINISTER:
None whatsoever.
JOURNALIST:
And is that a problem?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, no. Look can I say it's just not a big issue. There's a substance in our relationship, we have a slightly different view on this agreement than others, we're not frightened. If we're asked to put our point of view it is certainly not contaminating the relationship, it didn't in the past and it won't in the future. I've got to say, until the last few weeks I was not particularly conscious of the existence of this document.
Okay.
[ends]