PRIME MINISTER KARAMANLIS:
It is a special pleasure for us today to extend a very warm welcome to the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Howard, and of course you will know that with Australia we do have very close ties of friendship and Australia was in fact the destination for thousands of Greeks citizens in the difficult years and they emigrated to Australia to seek a better further for themselves and their families. Now a very large number of Greeks abroad live there now and constitute a component part of Australia and Greece is very grateful to Australia and its society for having welcomed our compatriots there. And we too are very proud that our Greeks abroad have excelled in all sectors, in the economy, in politics, in public life and of course with Australia we do have common ties of having fought on the same side during the Second World War against Nazism and we commemorate the honour of those soldiers that fell on Greek soil in the name of liberty.
Now we have looked at a number of international issues, issues of the European Union, the Balkans and other issues of topical interest. Now concerns of bilateral issues, our ties are on an excellent footing and we have agreed that further development is possible in the field of the economy and in tourism, a special mention was made also of social security agreements still pending and the efforts undertaken in order to avoid the difficulties one has. And this afternoon we will, together, in fact deal with European Union issues. I hand over to the Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well Prime Minister, can I say how very pleased I am to be in Athens again. The relationship between Australia and Greece you correctly describe as warm and friendly, comfortable and relaxed and very much a relationship that Australians feel very happy about. The ties between our two countries are of long historical standing. It is true that we fought against the tyranny of fascism and Nazism in World War II and I have always been greatly touched by the constant references of Greek Australians and Greeks generally to the sacrifices of Australians in that war and on my last visit to Greece I visited Crete and was deeply moved by the response of local people to that brief visit.
There are no difficult bilateral issues between our countries. The essence of the relationship is of course the people to people one with some seven hundred thousand Australians of Greek ancestry. All of them have made a massive contribution to our country. I think of all the ethnic groups in Australia of non-English speaking background, none has more comprehensively penetrated politics on both sides than have the Greeks, in different ways they continue to make their political mark but it is not limited to politics in every field of human endeavour. You find Greek Australians to the fore, be it politics, be it sport, be it arts, be it the cultural life of the country and they are a treasured part of the modern Australia and it's one of the reasons why it's always a great delight to come to this country, especially as Prime Minister of Australia.
We have discussed the social security agreement. We have some more work to do to resolve some differences but there is a desire on both sides to do that and also we're working to resolve some outstanding differences in relation to the working holidaymaker arrangements and I hope that can be brought to fruition because there is a long tradition of young Australians and young Greeks visiting each others' countries.
During our discussions we have talked about European affairs and we'll continue that discussion this afternoon. We of course understand very much the importance of Greece's association with the European Union, we have talked about the negotiations that are to commence shortly between Turkey and the European Union. I have reaffirmed the Australian Government's support for Greece's position in relation to the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia and also the continued involvement of the full complement of 15 Australian police in the UN presence in Cyprus. We both hope that that long running dispute can be in some way ultimately be resolved to the satisfaction of all. And overall we also came to the very quick agreement that as much as could be done to foster the economic relationship between our two countries that that should be worked upon, there are growing signs of greater investment from both sides and we touched upon one or two particular examples of that.
Finally, as the host country for the 2000 Olympics and having just visited what will be the host country for the 2008 Olympics, China, can I congratulate you Prime Minister and your fellow countrymen and women on the very successful games, we certainly enjoyed the participation and all the reports I have, and unfortunately because I had another pressing national engagement coming up, namely an election, not long after the Olympic Games were held it was not possible for me to come to Athens despite the urging of many around me to do so. But I congratulate Greece and the Greek people on very successful Olympic Games and we're all greatly warmed by that because of the long association of the Olympics and Greece and you are all to be congratulated on that. Thank you.
JOURNALIST:
Karen Middleton from the SBS television network. My question is to the Greek Prime Minister, although I'd be interested in Mr Howard's comments as well. Sir, you mentioned the large number of Australians who are of Greek background. Given the connection that obviously exists between those two countries, what support do you expect from Australia on the question of the status of Cyprus?
PRIME MINISTER KARAMANLIS:
Well we expect the support all countries can give us, not only a bilateral level but an international cooperation such as Cyprus is in order to find a viable solution, a just solution to the ongoing political problem. And I think that Australia's policy on this matter has been very constructive all these years. We hope that if we continue in this direction we eventually find a solution we all hope for.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think the Prime Minister's put it very well and I agree with him.
JOURNALIST:
I will submit my question in Greek if I may. Now as concerns the agreement between the two countries, Greece and Australia, in terms of social security rights being transferred for the Australians who've come back to Greece. What has been done so far and what stage are you at of implementing the said agreement?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well there have been very extensive negotiations and the areas where there is still difference relate to qualifying periods. Bear in mind that in the nature of the people flows such an agreement largely is about the payments that would be made by Australia to people who've lived in Australia for a long time and have returned to Greece. There's not a great deal in the other direction so clearly the flow is overwhelmingly in one direction, and that's something we fully understand and it's not something that we're in any way unhappy about or critical of, it's just something that should be borne in mind when you're looking at what's involved in this. There are some differences and they'll continue to be workshopped and discussed by our officials and I hope we can reach an agreement in the not too distant future and there's great goodwill on both sides to do that and there's no lack of generosity on the part of the Australian Government, but we have to balance these things with our other responsibilities.
PRIME MINISTER KARAMANLIS:
If I can just add one note on that, it's very important that on both sides the political volition was expressed to find a solution as soon as possible.
Thank you.
[ends]