PRIME MINISTER:
This morning I had a very good bilateral discussion with President Park. We covered a wide range of issues. Obviously, we covered trade issues, particularly with the subsequent signing of the Free Trade Agreement, we covered educational and cultural issues.
Korea has agreed to be a host country for the New Colombo Plan starting next year and that’s very good because historically we’ve had tens of thousands of Korean students in Australia and only tens of Australian students in Korea. There should be about 150 Commonwealth supported Australian students in Korea next year and more in the years ahead, so that’s going to be very good for deepening the cultural appreciation of our two countries – one for the other.
And then, of course, we spoke about the ongoing defence relationship. Koreans are very grateful for the work that this country of ours did to support them in the Korean War. For the record, I should remind people that 17,000 Australian military personnel served in Korea, almost 400 were killed in action, so it was a very significant commitment of military force by Australia to this Peninsula and obviously there is an ongoing security relationship with Korea, epitomised by the presence of 120 Australian service personnel in the large amphibious exercise taking place at the moment involving many thousands of Korean and United States personnel, but significantly for us 120 Australian personnel.
So it was a very warm, I think quite an intimate discussion. President Park was very pleased to have been able to reenergise the free trade talks which she said had rather meandered for several years before being reenergised after our conversation in the margins of APEC late last year.
Then of course we went to the formal signing of the Free Trade Agreement and I do want to put on record, again, my thanks and gratitude and admiration for the Trade Minister, Andrew Robb’s work and also for the work of all the officials led by Jan Adams, because it is the sustained effort that they have put in which has produced these two very important Free Trade Agreements – the one signed today with Korea and the one finalised over the last 48-hours with Japan.
These have been two very good days for Australia, two very good days for our economy, two very good days for jobs and prosperity and it’s initiatives like these which make trips like this so important and worthwhile.
Yes, Phil?
QUESTION:
[inaudible] the next challenge, which is China. There were similarities between the Japan and Korean trade agreements. Are any of those similarities going to form the basis of an agreement with China?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we think that the Korean agreement and the Japanese agreement are very much the best and the highest quality Free Trade Agreements that we’ve done and we would like the China agreement to be of equal quality. But look, there’s still quite a bit more work to be done. We’re optimistic but not certain of success and now that we’ve got the Korean work and the Japanese work substantially behind us, it will free up Andrew Robb and the very skilled negotiating team in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to focus on the Chinese agreement.
QUESTION:
What’s the best result you could hope for out of your talks on the FTA in Beijing?
PRIME MINISTER:
My understanding is that the sticking points are essentially about investment and what I’ll be wanting to reassure the Chinese Government is that we are genuinely open for business and I think in the wake of the decision about the Graincorp takeover there was some perception that we weren’t open for business and yet there have been many, many, many very substantial Foreign Investment Review Board applications that have been approved both before and since then by this Government.
This is the only significant application that has been knocked back and of course that was an American application, it wasn’t a Chinese application and there’ve been a couple of very significant Chinese bids which have been accepted, including bids by state-owned enterprises and I’ll be reassuring the Chinese that our Foreign Investment Review Board regime is one that they can well and truly live with and I think to the mutual advantage of both countries.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, on military cooperation with South Korea, I understand it goes beyond exercises and potentially goes to cooperations in defence [inaudible]. Can I ask if you can you explain what you meant and secondly, just regarding President Park talking about the death of the two South Koreans in Brisbane. I know you told her that Queensland police was looking into it, but this is a bit of a blow to your Colombo Plan, isn’t it, if there’s already concerns about the security of students?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there’ve been arrests made in both cases so these are not unsolved crimes. There have been arrests made in both cases and I think it’s important to point out that Koreans in Australia are the victims of crime at substantially below average rates and Australia is, by international standards, a very, very safe country and I gave President Park that reassurance.
Campbell Newman, of course, is part of the delegation to Korea. Campbell and President Park will have a chance to talk this evening at the state dinner which President Park is hosting and I am sure he will give the President an absolute guarantee that Queensland police take these matters very, very seriously. The last thing we want is visitors to our country feeling unsafe. The last thing we would ever want would be to allow an impression to be created that Australia was not a welcoming destination for visitors and students and business people.
Ok look, as some of you might remember, there was a very unfortunate episode during the life of the former government when an order was placed for Korean self-propelled guns and then capriciously cancelled. Now, this understandably has upset the Koreans and the point I make is that we are determined to be an absolutely reliable trustworthy partner whose word is our bond. This was a most unfortunate episode in the diplomacy of the former government and it ranked alongside the cancellation of the live cattle trade with Indonesia, the closing down of the uranium arrangements with India.
Countries have got to know that they can trust Australia and sure, countries understand that Australia will consult its national interests before making a decision, but once we’ve made a decision we’ve got to stick to it. I wanted to assure President Park that we were interested in defence cooperation beyond the long established security cooperation, including defence procurement, and I think she was very happy to have that assurance.
QUESTION:
President Park raised that issue with you. Was it President Park who asked about the self-propelled guns?
PRIME MINISTER:
Look, I pre-empted President Park because she’s raised it with me previously, the Korean Ambassador has raised it with me, Korean Members of Parliament have raised it with me. It has been, I think, quite a point of aggravation and it is very unfortunate that having entered into an arrangement on something as important and sensitive as defence procurement, the former government broke the arrangement.
Now because our Defence have moved on since then, we cannot revisit that particular subject, but it is important that we swiftly resume defence procurement cooperation and I want to explore what’s possible in this area in the week and months ahead.
QUESTION:
Can I just ask you, on the defence and military ties that was mentioned by President Park and strengthening of that relationship in a strategic sense [inaudible]. You’ve also signalled that with Japan as well [inaudible]. How do you balance those two when Korea and Japan have always had long-held suspicions of each other and sometimes they’re [inaudible] battle with each other? So how do you balance coming out of both meetings with the same message of greater defence and strategic cooperation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look, we are a country which wants to build all our friendships and we have a very close friendship with Japan; we’ve got a very close friendship with Korea. I accept that from time to time there are issues between Japan and Korea. The point I made this morning though in the joint statement with President Park is that both Australia and Korea are countries which are looking to make friends rather than to pick fights and the point that I’ve been making generally on this trip, including in my speech in Tokyo yesterday, is that we should learn from history, we should be encouraged and inspired by history, but we shouldn’t be shackled by it and we should learn the right lessons, not the wrong ones.
QUESTION:
Do you see Australia as playing a role in that sense of being a broker between nations that have previously been suspicious of each other?
PRIME MINISTER:
Again if I could go back to something that was touched upon in Japan, we were engaged – Australia was engaged – in a savage conflict with Japan with enormous bad blood on the part of Australian service personnel and their families and yet just 12 years after that savage conflict Prime Minister Menzies and Trade Minister McEwen concluded the critically important trade treaty with Prime Minister Kishi of Japan which was not only a piece of enlightened economic self-interest on both leaderships’ part, but was an extraordinary act of magnanimity which has done so much for both countries and indeed for the region. Hopefully this fragrant example can be a little bit exemplary in a region which sometimes is haunted by the shadows of the past.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, just building a little bit on the case of the order for the guns that you made. James Packer today had a pretty strong critique of former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s management of our relationships in Asia and what the outcome is. Now that you’re in Asia managing our relationship here, what is your judgement on how Kevin Rudd managed the relationships? Do you agree?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well look James, as you know, is more than capable of speaking for himself and he, I gather, has made some pretty strong and pungent statements, but look, I’m not really in the business of offering a running commentary on my predecessors, particularly when I’m overseas. My job is to do the best I can and sometimes it will be better than other times, but at all times it’s important to stand up for Australia’s interests and values and that’s my intention.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, you talked about military procurement with Korea but what about Japan given their change of stance? Did you get the impression that they were looking to sell military hardware to countries like Australia and would we be in the market for things like submarines and the like?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well this is obviously a big domestic debate in Japan and yes, there’s no doubt that Prime Minister Abe wants to expand Japan’s role in this respect and in other respects and Australia is very comfortable with that because Japan has been an absolutely exemplary international citizen in the years since 1945. I mean, Japan has been a model citizen, has adhered scrupulously to the rule of law, most recently, as we know, in respect of the International Court of Justice’s decision. So, Japan has been a model international citizen and I think ought to be able to become a more normal country in that particular respect.
Now, Japan has purchased some Bushmaster vehicles and that’s a good thing and that’s the kind of development that we’d like to see more of in the months and years ahead.
QUESTION:
Mr Abbott, you said in a recent interview that Australia claimed the [inaudible]…
PRIME MINISTER:
I think I was referring to Crimea I think at the time. Look, Australia will stand up for the rule of law. We will stand up for our people, our values and our interests to the limit of our ability and while we shouldn’t underestimate our ability, we shouldn’t overestimate it either and obviously we are a substantial power in our region, but we are not necessarily a substantial power many, many thousands of miles away. I guess that’s the obvious point I was making – that the closer we are to Australia, the more significant our weight is and we don’t want to get too, I suppose, pontifical about issues where our influence is not so great.
QUESTION:
What did you offer President Park this morning or what was she was asking from you [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think she was asking from us a clear-eyed understanding of the problem and plainly, North Korea is an outlaw state. It’s a clear threat to world peace. It’s a deadly danger to the citizens of South Korea and until such time as North Korea gives up its nuclear ambitions; until such time as North Korea permanently ends its aggression towards the South, it must be treated as a rogue and outlaw state and as far as we’re concerned, while we don’t rule out talking to North Korea, certainly we talk to them on the clear understanding that in so many areas their behaviour is simply unacceptable.
Thank you.
[ends]