Belgium Speech by the Prime Minister of Belgium, M. Leo Tindemans, at a
dinner in honour of the Prime Minister of Australia in Brussels on
16 December 1974
I take great pleasure in welcoming you to Belgium
and also in welcoming Mrs Whitlam, the
Minister of State, and the important Australian
Delegation.
While our two countries are geographically
separated by a great distance, this does not
necessarily mean that our political and moral
aims are different. Quite the contrary, our two
countries are fundamentally attached to political
democracy and improvement in international
relationships, in order to keep peace in the
world and to develop that peace based on a
greater justice.
There also exists a convergence in the foreign
policies followed by our two countries lately,
among others in the United Nations Organisation,
in order to contribute to international
detente. This is in particular the case with the
action we are developing within the framework
of the Non-Proliferation Treaty with the aim of
organising control of nuclear tests.
It was with great interest that I learnt about the
main trends of your home and foreign policy.
At home your Government at present aims at a
greater centralisation and reinforcing of the
responsibilities of the state in the economic and
social field.
As to foreign policy, your country is concerned
about a greater independence and endeavours
to show a characteristically Australian identity.
I believe that our two countries are becoming
more and more aware of the fact that we are at
the start of a period that forces us to consider our
international relationships and to place us in a
renewed framework. The present world can hardly be content with
the bipolar balance that has dominated these
international relationships.
Your country, just like ours, is anxious to contribute
to the development of subcontinental
organisations or communities of nations, after
the manner of our friendly countries of Western
Europe within the framework of the European
Union. I hope that the efforts we undertake in a parallel
direction in this international community will
bear fruit in the near future, in order to make the
same aims prevail.
I also hope that the bilateral relations between
your country and Belgium will be reinforced in
the years to come. These relations already
assume a very important nature in the trade
field. Your country exports to our country important
quantities of iron ore, textile and food products;
we export to your country manufactured goods
which seem to be particularly appreciated by
your Government. I am thinking for instance of
the electronic sector.
It would be desirable if our business relations
could be developed in other fields, in the sector
of uranium, and especially if a more intense
industrial co-operation could be envisaged
between our two countries, for instance through
participating in industrial co-operation agreements.
Prime Minister, today was the first day of your
visit to our country.
I believe our first discussions have been fruitful
so that one can envisage concrete progress in
the above-mentioned fields.
I hope that tomorrow you will be able to go
deeply into the different aspects of our future
collaboration, not only as to what concerns our
own country, but also in regard to the relationships
with the European Economic Community.
The Prime Minister with the Prime Minister of Belgium,
Speech by the Prime Minister of Australia at a dinner given in his
honour by the Prime Minister of Belgium in Brussels on
16 December 1974
Thank you, Prime Minister, for the warm and
gracious welcome you have accorded my wife
and me and the members of my party. It is
fitting that my visit to Europe should begin here
in Brussels, the very capital of Europe, a city
ancient in its culture and history yet symbolising
all that is modern and contemporary in the
new Europe. It is fifteen years since an Australian
Prime Minister made an official visit to
Belgium and the other capitals of Europe. Ten,
or even five years ago, no Australian Prime
Minister would have visited Brussels before
going to London. No Australian Prime Minister
would have discussed in Brussels matters
affecting not only Australia's relations with Belgium
but her relations with Britain and Europe.
For our part, nothing could illustrate more
clearly the momentous changes that have
occurred in recent years-in Belgium, in Britain,
in Europe, in Australia, in the world at large. I
welcome the opportunity to reaffirm the
strength of our friendship. Throughout this era
of historic change relations between Belgium
and Australia have grown and strengthenedfounded
as they are in common cultural traditions
and based on the enduring Western
values of liberty, democracy and the rule of law.
There is an impression abroad-in Australia and
elsewhere-that Europe no longer matters to
Australia, and that our destiny now lies exclusively
with Asia, Japan and the nations to our
north. That is a false impression. It is true that
Australia has developed closer and more realistic
ties with Asia and Japan. Our trade with
those nations has increased three-fold in the
last twenty years, and Japan is now our biggest
single trading partner. No one welcomes more
than I do the historic trends that have brought
Australia closer to the nations of her own region,
deepened our friendship with our neighbours
and sharpened our sense of regional responsibility.
No one has worked harder to encourage
those trends. But it would be a grave mistake to
suppose that our greater involvement in Asia
means a lesser involvement in Europe. Australia's interests in Europe are of great and
growing importance.
Britain and Europe take roughly one-third of our
exports. Our involvement in Asia and our involvement
in Europe are not mutually exclusive.
They are complementary. They reflect not only
our desire-a natural desire-to enlarge our role
in the world, but a growing trend towards interdependence
between all nations. On my first
visit to Brussels as Prime Minister I reaffirm
Australia's profound and lasting interest in
Europe, our support for the European ideal, and
our desire for stronger and closer ties with all
European nations.
Australia has always given her full support to
the concept of a united Europe. It is true that we
have sought to safeguard our own trading
interests as best we can, but on the wider issue
of European unity there has never been any
question of our support for the high principles
and noble aspirations that guide and sustain the
European community. Australia believes deeply
in the value of regional co-operation at the
economic and political levels: in our own region
we have done our best to promote it. How natural,
then, that we should support one of the
greatest and most successful examples of
regional integration ever attempted by sovereign
nations. I acknowledge the anxiety that
many Australians felt at the prospect of Britain's
entry. Speaking for myself, it seemed to me a matter of
profound historical justice, of singular ' rightness',
that within the space of a week in 1971,
two of the world's greatest nations were committed
to membership of organisations to which
they were destined to belong-China was
admitted to the United Nations General Assembly,
and the House of Commons voted in favour
of Britain's entry to the European Community.
May I say, Prime Minister, how greatly Australians
admire your own contribution to the
cause of Europe and Belgium's central role in
that cause. This city, always one of the loveliest
in Europe, now enjoys a new eminence and a
proud status as the institutional capital of the
European communities and the headquarters of
its most significant and enduring security alliance.
Australians for many years honoured
your predecessor, the late Paul-Henri Spaak, as
a statesman of world stature and one of the
founding spirits of the Common Market.
It is appropriate that you, Sir, have been
charged by the recent conference of Heads of
Government of the Community with the task of
reporting to them on the prospects and progress
of European political unity. In that difficult and
complex undertaking, I have no doubt that your
efforts will bring closer the fundamental and
guiding objective which for twenty years has
provided the inspiration and philosophical basis
of the European experiment-the belief that
independent states may one day submerge
their political differences and come together in a
political union.
There are pressing reasons why nations'of all
kinds must seek a unity of purpose, a greater
measure of co-operation and understanding.
The whole world-Australia no less than Belgium,
our own region no less than Europe-is
beset by problems of unprecedented difficulty,
of daunting complexity, of great danger. Overpopulation,
pollution, the energy shortage, terrorism,
racial tensions are some of the most
urgent. Overhanging the economies of the
Western nations are the twin problems of
unemployment and inflation. Because these
problems are global in their scope and origin,
the solutions to them must be international
solutions. It is folly to pretend that they will be
solved by nations, or even groups of nations,
acting alone or in isolation.
What is at stake is not just the ability of democratic
states to manage their economies, but
people's faith in the ability of democracy to survive.
Must the democracies concede that only
authoritarian regimes can cope with inflation
and employment? This is a battle that the
democracies must win, not just for the sake of
their economies, but for the sake of their democratic
institutions. Here in Europe, where the
highest living standards are combined with the
highest measure of personal freedom and a
unique abundance of cultural and artistic riches,
the advanced industrial nations have a supreme incentive to preserve the strength of their system
and overcome the social economic and environmental
problems that threaten its survival.
No nation has pursued a more active policy of
international co-operation than Belgium during
the past quarter of a century. I pay tribute to that
effort. You are a member of the United Nations,
a member of NATO, a member of the Council of
Europe and Western European Union. You are
one of the Benelux countries. You are a member
of Euratom, the European Coal and Steel Community
and, of course, the EEC. Your support for
the Atlantic Alliance and an integrated Europe
has provided the basis of a viable Belgian
foreign policy. There is not a better example of
the ability of a small power to set an example of
co-operation and exercise an influence for good
out of all proportion to its size and population.
There is another reason why European union is
profoundly important for the world. It has a
poignant relevance to my own country no less
than yours. Thousands of Australians fought
and died in Belgium during the two world wars.
Ypres, Mons, Messines are names firmly
engraved on the consciousness of the Australian
people. I visited this morning the tomb of
the Unknown Soldier and every year the Australian
Ambassador in this city attends a
ceremony at the Menin Gate in memory of the
Belgian and Australian soldiers who fought as
comrades in arms. We recall the suffering of
those days, not to glorify war but to reaffirm the
spirit of peace which is so much a part of the
spirit of the new Europe. All your plans, all your
hopes, all your ambitions for a greater and more
prosperous Europe rest on the preservation of
peace. If your Community achieves nothing
else, the world will rejoice that for the first time
the threat of war has been lifted from a continent
ravaged by the most terrible wars in
history. In this context I commend the action of your
Government in ratifying the nuclear nonproliferation
treaty. Australia has worked
consistently for the strengthening of that treaty.
We regard it as crucial to the preservation of
peace and the survival of civilisation. The
alternative is a nightmare world in which dozens
of nations may possess nuclear weapons by the
early 1980s. Yet six years after the treaty was
concluded and four years after it came into
force, some states-including some states in
Europe-have still to ratify the treaty or make
clear their renunciation of nuclear weapons
development. Australia and Belgium are comparatively small
powers. Remote as we are from each other in
terms of distance, we have a great deal in common.
We are affluent nations in a world of widespread
poverty. We are highly industrialised.
We are devoted to regional co-operation. Our
bilateral trade, though modest in scale, has
grown steadily and exhibits a remarkable balance.
Australia's exports to Belgium in
1973-74 were worth $ A59000000: Belgium's
exports to Australia were worth
$ A57 000 000. Australia's ties with Europe
have been strengthened since World War II by a
vast immigration program. It is a reminder to us
that modern civilisation in Australia sprang from
the great tide of European colonisation in the
19th century-a process of colonisation in
which Belgium played her part.
To the north, east and west of Australia there
are many nations which were once parts of
European empires. These links with Europe
have left an enduring mark on the newer
nations of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Australia,
like many other states in her region, has set her
own firm and independent course in world
affairs. In doing so we acknowledge our historic
and cultural debt to Europe and look to the
nations of Europe for support and collaboration
in overcoming the problems shared by all mankind.
I take heart from the great achievement in
international co-operation we have witnessed
in Europe itself-an achievement in which your
own country has played a lasting and a leading
role.
Speech by the Prime Minister of Australia at the International
Press Centre in Brussels on 18 December 1974
I am conscious that my visit to Europe-the first
by an Australian Prime Minister for fifteen
years-coincides with a growing sense of crisis
in international economic affairs. Continuing
high rates of inflation, the threat of emergent
recessionary forces, severe balance of payments
problems for many countries, strains on international
monetary mechanisms and the accentuation
of the problems of the developing countries
constitute pressures of a magnitude and
diversity which the world has not faced since
the war. The European Community is the largest single
trading bloc in the world. The impact of these
developments on the relationships between the
Community and other countries and between
member nations within the Community is of
major significance to all the world's trading
countries. As the Head of Government of a trading
nation of growing significance, I believe
these events demonstrate with unmistakable
force the interdependence of the world's economies.
Such a comment may sound trite. There
are times, however, when restating the obvious
The Prime Minister speaks at the International Press Centre in Brussels.
r