PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
I’m really thrilled to welcome Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, here to Parliament House and to Australia.
Mark and I have become very good friends over the last 12 months. Our friendship has been forged in some difficult circumstances, but it's become close and deep through the work we did together on MH17 and I suspect we will be working together in the future, not just on that, but on some national and international security issues as well.
Australia and Holland go back a long way – almost 400 years in fact – to Dirk Hartog's landing on the west coast of Australia.
In more recent times, we worked very closely together in Uruzgan Province. Australians, let's face it, were based at Camp Holland in Tarin Kowt. We were then thrown together to respond to the MH17 atrocity and I want to thank Prime Minister Rutte for the leadership that he has shown, particularly in coordinating the ongoing criminal investigation into this particular matter.
We are both wrestling with the difficulty of extremism – potential terrorism – at home and abroad. Holland, like Australia, has too many of its citizens fighting with terrorist groups in the Middle East and the Netherlands, like Australia, is an active member of the coalition to disrupt and degrade the ISIL death cult in Iraq.
So, there's much else that I could say. We have a strong economic relationship. The Netherlands is one of the largest institutional investors in Australia after the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, perhaps by some measures the largest institutional investor in Australia.
So, it's a good relationship; it's getting stronger all the time. As Mark said to me earlier today, physically we are many thousands of miles apart, but emotionally and spiritually we're next door neighbours. I think that is a very good description of the strength of the relationship between Australia and the Netherlands.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
Thanks, Tony. Let me also stress the fact that we started to work together earlier this year when we met in Davos and we met again in Normandy, but nobody could have expected the fact that we would work so closely together since the terrible tragedy of MH17.
Many Australians were lost in this flight – in this terrible tragedy. Also, the Dutch community in Australia was hit hard. A considerable number of the Dutch victims lived here in Australia, and I think this is also testament to the close bond between our two countries and I would like to take this opportunity to again express my appreciation for the very close cooperation between our two countries, our services, the two armies, the police people, the forensic experts who have worked together on this with Malaysia and as we said earlier, it's still an early stage, there's still a lot to be done in terms of bringing those who did this to justice.
Last week and this week, luckily, conditions allowed a small team to visit the crash site and that will mean that we can again transfer to the Netherlands the found remains of victims following the usual ceremonial protocol that will take place on Saturday. We also stress as you said, Tony, that we work together on many areas – culturally, economically, but also on this very difficult issue of foreign fighters.
We are together active in the fight against ISIL in Iraq but we are also fighting this phenomenon of the foreign fighters, some of them coming back to our countries and how we deal with this issue and here also we have discussed at length what we can learn from the approaches we both are taking.
Again, thank you so much for taking time and having this wonderful friendship.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
Thanks Mark, thank you.
Ok, do we have some questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, I’m just wondering if you have yet secured a meeting with Vladimir Putin either in Beijing or Brisbane? How determined are you for that, will you chase him down a corridor, when you do catch him if you do what will you say to him? And can I also ask Prime Minister Rutte what would you say to Vladimir Putin?
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
Prime Minister Rutte has already been speaking to Vladimir Putin so I might ask you to lead off.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
I had a chance again in Milan two weeks ago at the ASEM summit to speak with Vladimir Putin and I used the opportunity again to tell him that I expect him to do everything he can to put pressure on the separatists to allow unhindered access to the crash site, to work with the Ukrainians to do what will be only natural and acceptable, which is for Australia, Malaysia and the Netherlands and the other countries being involved to bring back the remaining remains, the personal belongings and to do our investigation. And I reminded him that with the Kursk, you will remember this was a terrible tragedy with the Kursk, where we from the Dutch side helped to retrieve the ship because the Russians promised that they would bring back all the dead and deliver them back to their loved ones. I said this is comparable to the Kursk, it’s comparable to what we are now experiencing with MH17. So, we need your help, we need your involvement and I'm very happy that Tony Abbott will make use of his meetings. I know that Najib Razak of Malaysia will also try to take the opportunity in Beijing next week to speak with Vladimir Putin.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
One way or another, I will take the chance to speak to the Russian President sometime over the next week or so. I'll be in Beijing with him at the APEC conference, then of course we're expecting him at the G20 conference in Brisbane. So, one way or another, an opportunity will come up for me to speak personally with President Putin. Like Prime Minister Rutte, what I'll be saying to him is that Australia expects full Russian cooperation with the investigation. We don't want the investigation ridiculed, we don't want the investigation compromised or sabotaged, we want full cooperation with the investigation. We owe it to our dead to secure justice and Russia as a member of the international community owes it to the world, owes it to humanity, to ensure that justice is done and wherever possible the perpetrators of this crime are brought to justice. So, that’ll be the conversation that I'll be having with Vladimir Putin at the earliest possible moment.
QUESTION:
I would like to ask Prime Minister Rutte, earlier this year or earlier, General Cosgrove and Prime Minister Tony Abbott already came to the Netherlands. You’re now making a two-day visit to Australia, what’s so important about this visit that you're only staying for two days and running out again?
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
I would love to stay longer.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
He's a busy man, he has a country to run.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
Yes, these visits are always too short. I was yesterday in Malaysia for one day and now for two days in Australia. At the same time, in these two days you can do a lot of things. We have had meetings this morning with the Governor-General and now meetings with my colleague, with members of the Cabinet, we will continue these discussions during the day. Tomorrow I will, after some meetings here in Canberra, I fly back to Sydney and have meetings there with people having been involved in the follow-up of this terrible tragedy with MH17. So, it’s a packed programme, fully packed, and we try to squeeze in so many dates on other issues like the economy and the foreign fighters but the main issue obviously is MH17 and I would love to stay longer but I think in two days we can cover a lot of ground.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
Ok, Brendan?
QUESTION:
Mr Rutte, the Dutch intelligence agencies have recently warned that jihadism poses an unprecedented security threat. Now, how concerned are you about that and the fact that it appears largely their concerns are based on the fact that the acceleration in support appears to be largely based on very effective use of social media which is a new phenomenon for agencies and governments to try and control. How concerned about this are you for your country and Europe generally and countries like Australia?
And Mr Abbott if I could just ask you, you're going to have the leaders of the United States and China both making major speeches in Australia, probably quite pointedly strategic issues covered, will you have any issues managing this?
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
I think he's getting too two sneaky questions in for the price of one. Isn’t he? Why don't you go first?
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
First of all, I am worried and that's why we take action. I think as governments we should never stay worried for too long a period, we should make these worries, make them into action and that's why we are working on this foreign fighter phenomenon from every angle. It means we have to work on people who tend to travel, who have the intention to travel, to Syria or Iraq or other parts of that region, that we have to deal with the fact that people might want to come back to the Netherlands or to Australia, having gained a lot of new insights and knowledge which could be a threat to our societies.
So, we face here a multifaceted phenomenon which is of high risk and which we have to fight with all the instruments we can find, on the tough side, on the soft side, for every instrument we can find and that's what we are doing. We have a full programme in the Netherlands, I know that Tony Abbott and his Government here in Australia have a full skill programme, and we are constantly exchanging best practices to learn from each other, to deal with this.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
Look, Brendan, the rise of China is in in everyone's interests, we have all benefited from the rise of China and obviously the peaceful rise of China is in everyone’s interests not least the Chinese interests. So, I would counsel against any eagerness on anyone's part to pit China and America against each other. I think that there are the makings of a good partnership there and certainly that's what we want to encourage here in Australia.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister Abbott, right after the downing of flight MH17 you pointed pretty quickly into the direction of the rebels in eastern Ukraine and also in the direction of Mr Putin, do you now have any idea who is really responsible for the downing of the plane? And Prime Minister Rutte, do you still really believe that people who are responsible will be brought to justice?
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
We were given very strong security advice in the days following the atrocity as to the type of weapon, as to the place from where the weapon was fired and as to the likely prominence of the weapon and there's been nothing since then to question that original security advice.
PRIME MINISTER RUTTE:
And on your second question, I can guarantee you that we will do everything we can to bring those responsible to justice. We are working on this with all the countries involved through the independent Dutch Safety Board, through the public prosecutors, many people of high calibre are working on this on both sides of the world to get to the bottom of this. So, we are highly motivated. I have no 100 per cent guarantee but I do have 100 per cent guarantee that we will do everything we can to bring them to justice.
As you know, we as a Dutch Government we are leading the international investigation and that means that I will never comment on evidence or… I know there are many dots, there are many facts which have been established or facts which we think have been established, to make sure that we have absolute clarity about the facts and to connect the dots of these facts into a clear conclusion is up to the independent Dutch Safety Board and the reason we do this through the independent Dutch Safety Board is that Tony, myself and all the others involved we don't want to have political interference in the final conclusions of what happened. If it is independent then it is much more difficult for countries, probably being involved or potentially being involved, to question the outcome and that's the reason why we are so hesitant to connect dots.
PRIME MINISTER ABBOTT:
Thank you. Thanks very much, thank you.
[ends]