PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Mr Prime Minister, sir. Let me once again welcome you and your delegation to Pakistan. It is an important occasion for Pakistan because this is the second time that an Australian Prime Minister has ever visited our country. And Pakistan believes that Australia has a major role to play in the world, they are in every major part of the world Australia is active and in the field of diplomacy, economy and peacekeeping Australia has always had a major influence around the world.
President Musharraf visited Australia earlier this year as a reflection of what Pakistan thinks is a very important part of the world. He had an excellent trip and that has formed the basis of our relations going forward. Today the Prime Minister and I had very detailed discussions on a host of issues - the situation in the region, the situation with our neighbours, Pakistan's desire for peace and for pursuing a path of economic growth and improving the quality of life of the people. Australia and Pakistan share many things in common. We want peace in the world, we want settlement of disputes through dialogue. We are against terrorism. We are all together in this fight against terrorism across the world. We want more economic cooperation, political cooperation and technical assistance between the two countries, Australia has already agreed to help us in many ways by offering 500 scholarships to our students, by being very generous with the earthquake and sending so many people and financial assistance to Pakistan in what is clearly a major human tragedy and a major catastrophe which we are dealing with. We also have private sector interest in both countries and today what we saw is the further manifestation of the fact that the potential between the two private sectors is enormous, particularly in the area of agri-business, in the area of minerals and exchange of value-added and high technology products. We also share a common interest, the two countries share a common interest in sports. Cricket, hockey and squash are three different sports which both countries excel in and occasionally meet each other and whenever they meet each other these are very exciting matches.
So Mr Prime Minister, it's a real privilege for the Government and people of Pakistan to welcome you and your delegation to our country and we know that your trip will serve as a further reinforcement of the process that started with President Musharraf's trip to Australia, that we will grow our cooperation, grow our relations and grow our people-to-people contacts. Thank you very much for visiting us and I wish you a very pleasant stay in Pakistan.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well thank you very much Prime Minister. This is my first visit to Pakistan and I am delighted to convey to you Prime Minister the very warm good wishes of the Australian people to particularly extend our condolences to your country on the terrible humanitarian consequences of the earthquake. Australia has already contributed significantly to the relief following that earthquake and tomorrow when I visit the area I will have something further to say on that issue.
I believe that relations between our two countries can grow naturally. We do have a lot of history and a lot of culture and a lot of other things as you mentioned in common. And that is a useful base for the growth and the expansion of the relationship. I take this opportunity to express my admiration for the strong stand that President Musharraf, you, as the Head of Government, and the Pakistani people have taken in the fight against terrorism. It's very real, very direct, very close and very threatening to your country. We had very extensive discussions today about the importance of interfaith dialogue and respect. Pakistan is the second most populous Islamic country in the world, the most populous of course being our near neighbour Indonesia. And it is tremendously important that in fighting terrorism we stress the commonality of principles of the world's great religions, to stress the fact that it is no part of the practice of Islam to support or espouse terrorism and to stress that we all have in common, be we Muslim, Jew or Christian or indeed any other religion, we all have in common the great principles of peace and world brotherhood.
I'm impressed, if I may put it that way Mr Prime Minister, with the great emphasise placed by your Government, particularly under your leadership and with your business background of the significance of economic growth and foreign investment. The source in the globalised world of higher living standards is economic growth. Without economic growth living standards will not rise. The countries that have embraced globalisation and openness in trade are the countries whose populations have been lifted out of poverty. And it's true now as it was 20 years ago, and you've given wonderful leadership on that and we have both agreed that we are reaching a crunch point at the Hong Kong ministerial meeting in the context of the Doha Round. APEC reached a good deal of consensus on that issue and sent the very strong message (tape break) which really is the deal breaker.
Mr Prime Minister, I am delighted to be here. I look further to our further discussions tonight. I look forward to my discussions with President Musharraf and I bring you the good wishes of the Australian people and I hope that this visit, along with the visit that President Musharraf paid to Australia earlier this year will be key elements in a strengthening relationship.
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
Thank you very much Prime Minister. We'll take a few questions.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) how did you find him as a leader of (inaudible). And secondly, Pakistan and Australia (inaudible) terrorism. Pakistan has supported (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well can I take the second question first, the Prime Minister and I did spend some time talking about Kashmir. I, in fact, remarked to the Prime Minister just before we came to this news conference that when I studied constitutional law at Sydney University in the 1950s I learnt in great detail of the emergence of the constitutions in both India and Pakistan and the circumstances of how the Kashmir dispute arose and of course Australia's most eminent jurist, Sir Owen Dixon, was at one stage involved as a negotiator to try and resolve the Kashmiri dispute. Let me say this, that I think it is greatly to be praised that both India and Pakistan, despite all the historic difficulties and the strength of feeling on both sides, that India and Pakistan have come together and to talk about this issue and try and resolve it is not easy and of course there are three parties, there's India, Pakistan and very importantly also the Kashmiri people. It is not for me to say that this or that path is the right path but I am very ready to say that the contribution that President Musharraf and his Prime Minister and the contribution that Prime Minister Vajpayee and now the new Prime Minister of India, Dr Singh, the contribution that they are making as men of goodwill and men of peace to bring about a resolution is encouraging and I think that four or five years ago some people were saying that Kashmir represented one of the great flashpoints in the world, more dangerous indeed than the Middle East and think of the progress that's been made since then, it reflects great credit on the leadership of both Pakistan and India. And how did I find the Prime Minister? I found him very charming, a very charming interlocutor and a person who has the best interests of his country at heart.
JOURNALIST:
Are you going to announce some amount for the reconstruction in Kashmir?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
We have already, of course, announced a contribution of some $15 million in aid and in addition to that we last week sent an army medical team of some 160 personnel who'll be at least three months in one of the more remote areas, and I hope to visit them tomorrow. And I will, tomorrow, be announcing something further. But I won't at this stage go into the details of it.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible) London bombers had links with Pakistan. Is Pakistan doing enough to curb Islamic militancy and are things like the Iraq war, the occupation there, Afghanistan, are they making the problem harder for you to fix?
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
Pakistan is, as I mentioned earlier, against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Terrorism is something the world has to come together, gel together to fight. It knows no borders and it has nothing to do with any particular faith. It is very universal and the world has to come together to face this major challenge which we all have. As regards Pakistan's policy, it is based on a conviction that terrorism is no solution to any issue. We abhor terrorism in any form and we have fought it and we'll continue to fight it along with the world community. As regards madrassas, they are educational institutions which have enrolled about one per cent of the student population of the country and we do not anymore allow any foreign students to come to the madrassas. The Government of Pakistan supports madrassas as a vehicle for education, we are mainstreaming the madrassas, we are broad-basing them. So in addition to having religious education, and as you know every faith has seminaries who train and educate people in their respective religions, we believe that madrassas can serve a useful purpose. However if any institution or individual is propagating hatred, propagating violence, the laws of Pakistan deal with them very effectively. And that is what the Government has been embarked on for the last several years and as you can see Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism is well known around the world, but it is based on a conviction that the world has to live in peace, Pakistan has to develop and grow and having people with extreme and violent views cannot make a country grow. So that is why we are doing what we are doing and we'll continue to be part of this coalition across the world.
Let me also say that education is something we are really focusing on, we are very much committed to increasing spending on education. And lastly, Islam is a religion of peace, Islam promotes interfaith harmony, Islam is against violence and the world sometimes has a tendency to link extremism to our faith, Islam. Nothing is further from the truth. And that is what we in the world, in civil society, have to explain to each other that interfaith harmony, the ability and right to practice your own faith freely in any society anywhere in the world, is the very basis of having a peaceful world. And that's what we are committed to as a government.
JOURNALIST:
Both India and Pakistan proposed several confidence-building measures to resolve the problem of Kashmir. So do you think that the people of Indian-held Kashmir, should they be given the right of self-determination as in the UN resolutions?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I think that's a fairly challenging proposition that. I think the best way of ultimately resolving issues of self-determination is to promote a political and social outcome where people of different origins can live in harmony within a politically defined area.
JOURNALIST:
(inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well if I could start by saying I don't think either of us are satisfied, we need to do a lot more. The documents that were signed earlier indicated great potential in the resource sector. We have agreed to activate an agreement signed some time ago about bringing together an economic committee representing the two countries and that's going to be put into action early next year. There's a lot of areas that I think can be expanded, but we have to allow it to develop in accordance with good private sector principles and that is that where there is a market opportunity and there is an attractive investment climate and Pakistan is winning herself a well-deserved reputation for being a country that beckons foreign investment and creates a transparent environment for that foreign investment. And I hope out of that, and particularly the momentum of the two visits this year, there can be a stronger relationship.
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
I would just add by saying I agree with the Prime Minister. I think the potential for growing our economic cooperation is quite broad-based and the discussions we've had today, the agreements we've signed shows that there's a lot of potential to increase trade. We've agreed to activate the trade groups so the two countries' officials can sit together and that could then lead to more trade cooperation. Our trade is rising, but we think the potential is much more than what we have today. Similarly on investments and technical assistance, Australia has already agreed to help us on higher education with scholarships where we have asked for assistance on agriculture, argi-business and livestock where Australia is a world leader. And we have asked for more investment to come in because we have created in Pakistan that enabling environment which can allow Australian entrepreneurs to come here in the areas of real estate development, in the area of energy and mining, some of the business, and agri-business where Australian entrepreneurs can come to Pakistan, invest and obviously find profitable opportunities.
We will just take two more questions, one from the Australian side and one from the Pakistan side.
JOURNALIST:
Could I ask both Prime Ministers whether you're concerned about the role that has been reportedly played by Islamic fundamentalists in the earthquake area in delivering relief.
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
There are various reports but the truth is that all the people who are engaged in earthquake relief are there for a humanitarian cause, they are relief workers, they are paramedics and doctors and I think there has been a lot of talk about various people being there but we have gone over all the camps and what we have seen is a great sense of caring and sharing and a lot of medical help and treatment which is being extended, plus food is being distributed. So we don't see any adverse activity taking place in the camps, in fact the camps have been very well organised and there is tremendous resilience in the people of Pakistan esprit corps which has encouraged people form Karachi right up to the Khyber Pass to go out there and a sense of volunteerism like we've never seen before. Never has this nation galvanised the way it has today, since its independence. So there is a lot of euphoria, there's a lot of caring and sharing and people are giving a lot of time, energy and effort to promote relief activities. We welcome relief from anywhere in the world. Let me also tell you that there are at least 60 countries in various sizes and shapes who have come here and extended relief to the people. This is clearly a global effort.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
I wouldn't want to add to that.
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
Last question.
JOURNALIST:
Your Excellency, in the whole world there are some regional and bilateral trade arrangements taking place. Is there any suggestion of fair trade arrangements, bilateral trade arrangements between Pakistan and India, particularly like our FTA?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well, I think it's, you're asking about a Free Trade Agreement between Pakistan and Australia? I think it is premature. We both agreed to be talking about that. I think what we should do, to use the old saying, is crawl before we walk, or walk before we run. And to build a better relationship on what is there and if that brings forth the opportunity for some kind of discussion about a free trade association or the feasibility of a free trade agreement, well that will happen naturally.
PRIME MINISTER AZIZ:
Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you.
[ends]