Ij3AU STRA " A
PRIME MINISTER
E. O. E. PROOF ONLY
TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE IN GOA 27 NOVEMBER 1983
PM: Well, you' re aware of the resolution on Cyprus which
JOURNALIST: I don't think we've got the actual working on
PM: I don't think I'm actually entitled to give the working
of it, but I can give you the essence of it. It involved a
condemnation of the attempts to create a secessionist state
and endorsement of Security Council resolution 541 and we
support of the independence of sovereignty and territorial
integrity unity and non-alignment for the Republic of Cyprus.
We agreed to establish a special Cpmmonwealth action group
on Cyprus at a high level and this is to assist in security
Security Council resolution 541.
JOURNALIST: What does high level mean, Prime Minister?
PM: Well, I was just going to say I would come back to that.
I~ t's deliberately left open because it's anticipated that
it might at different times consist of different levels. For
instance, probably before we leave Delhi ( inaudible) the
Prime Ministers of the five countries Australia, Guyana,
India, Nigeria and Zambia will have the first meeting and
then it will be taken up subsequently at different levels,
perhaps by Prime Ministers at. certain times, perhaps by officials
high officials.
JOURNALIST: Were you approached to go ahead or did you volunteer?
PM: No, I didn't volunteer.
JOURNALIST: INAUDIBLE
PM: would be a very good member of such a committee and we
were more than pleased to be invo]. ved for three reasons. one
the general importance of it. Two because of our large
community, the Cypriot conmmunity i~ n Australia. Three we have
had a continuing presence there in Cyprus with the police
contingency force. So when we were nominated for it I was quite
happy to accept.
PM: That's Cyprus. / 2
JOURNALIST: clarification of You just talked
about the word " in association" with the United Nations.
What does that mean precisely? How will it operate at the
United Nations?
PM: Well, let me go backwards and it may give you some
indication. Before the CHOGM conference Ramphal, the
Secretary-General had been in discussions with the
and it was indicated that it would be helpful if the
Commonwealth would involve itself and so under the
Security Council resolution 541 the Secretary-General is
required to use his good offices for the purpose of trying
to bring the resolution and he clearly believes that the
Commonwealth Cyprus being a member of the Commonwealth
may be able to have some influence in assisting him in the
exercise of his good offices, so it would be a matter of
judgernent between the Commonwealth and the UN Secretary-
General as to just how it would operate.
JOURNALIST: You can't say anything more than that at this
stage?
PM: They had a drafting group. The officers came back with
a ~ draft and in the draft there was work. And it was accepted.
Anything further on Cyprus?
Because a lot of time has been taken up on Grenada. It has
been interesting to me to see the processes of the Commonwealth
in action here. The debate, as you know, started in New Delhi
on the late morning, Thursday morning and went through to
the Thursday afternoon session. It was a very tense, dramatic
thing and to me one of the most interesting discussions I have
ever been involved in. Essentially you have the African
states expressing a grave concern about the invasion and taking
the view that the United States exercise, the Caribbean states
who got involved saying very strongly that it was their
initiative and they were basically apprehensive about the
threat that was posed to the rest of the East Caribbean by the
events that had-been taking place prior to the invasion. You
would have thought by the end of the day in New Delhi that it
would have been to get any sort of common position. We
came down here and had a further lengthy debate and then
there was a drafting committee which consisted of representatives
of the Caribbean including those'who hadn't supported hadn't
been involved in the debate and others that were and Zimbabwe.
They came back with a draft which we commenced to consider last
night at about quarter past seven. It was thought that it might
be capable of being fixed up quite quickly and in fact it went
on . till about 9 o'clock. We were supposed to finish at 8. By
9 in fact agreement was reached and I can say quite seriously
that I think it was a fairly impressive achievement at the end
to get again I really can't go into the in Delhi, but I
can say that it did involve the Commonwealth leaders saying
that it referred to our readiness to give sympathetic
consideration to requests for assistance from Grenada in the
context of the the civilian administration is operating and
/ 3
it is operating free from outside pressures and the presence
of foreign troops. In that situation if they want
assistance at all the Commonwealth would be prepared to
give sympathetic consideration to that.
JOURNALIST: That depends on on Thursday
PM: Yes, well, the wording to the administration operating
free of external interference, pressure or the presence of
foreign forces. And there is reference to the readiness of
the Caribbean states or countries in the East Caribbean
community to assist in the maintenance of order so what you're
essentially looking at is a gradual transition of the
emergence of this, the Grenadan administration, perhaps
assisted by forces from the actual Caribbean states to help
maintain order, withdrawal of foreign troops and in that sort
of context some sort of assistance.
JOURNALIST: Does it avoid condemning the United States
specifically? PM: Yes, the United States doesn't get named.
JOURNALIST: What sort of assistance is envisaged? What sort
of people would
PM: Well, what you can say is that there would be no troops,
n-o forces. We said from the beginning we weren't interested in
that and that is not contemplated. Now, you could conceivably
have some people involved in of police forces. That is a
possibility. Or you could conceivably have some small
supervisory body to oversee an election. The important thing
to say is no troops.
JOURNALIST: In terms of the Australian Government's position
on this issue, have you changed your assessment of the whole
Grenada invasion as a result of these talks?
PM: No, we said that if we had been consulted in advance
we would have counselled against invasion before the exhaustion
of other possibilities and that would remain our position.
What we have to say is that when you listen to the
persons for Antigua, Barbados and Dominica, St Lucia, when you
listen to those countries who were involved and I think that
this is a comment fairly generally I mean I'm not
myself. You couldn't help but be impressed by the integrity
and intensity of their feelings and I think that is their
concern, what was involved, and not only what had happened to
Grenada, but the possible to some of their own countries.
And I think that the fact that you are able to get a
communique in the terms which you have got, is a reflection of
how widely that was felt around the table. There is no doubt
that they wanted it to happen. And putting it the other way,
you could not sustain the conclusion that this was some
United States plan forced upon some unwilling countries in the
area. / 4
JOURNALIST: In terms of our own interpretation of this
communique on Grenada, it seems fairly clear that in fact
the Caribbean nations have prevailed against the African
criticism, if you go back to the start of the debate.
I mean, do you think that is a fair comment?
PM: Well, you know, there is more emphasis in the communique
on the understanding of the position put by the Caribbeans
and what they a~ re now saying is and I think the phrase is
used there well this is a time now for reconstruction and
not recrimination. I think that phrase is actually used.
. I'm not going to give you the whole document but the
emphasis should be on reconstruction and not recrimination.
So, what they are saying is OK we've got our views and in the
first part of the document there is a resolution you'll see
reference to the fact that the individuals put their view,
their own view, in the Security Council. They have said that
and so they can refer back to that if they want to. They are
now saying well, what do we do about the future. And I think
it is fair enough to say that the Caribbean states would
obviously not have agreed to this unless they were satisfied
with the position they put be adequately taken into
account and I think it has.
JOURNALIST: I'd really like to check on just a bit of a
tangent we understand some of the West Indian leaders may
have gone off to the cricket. Now do you know if they've
gone? PM: Today? Well, they did raise the question in New Delhi
and then again yesterday as to whether in fact they could go.
They had indicated that it would be regarded as some sort of
insult by people to have been so close if they didn't in fact
go. It was not a point of view which received widespread
sympathy and I would think, particularly when it was pointed out
that it would take an hour to fly. I was not interested at any
stage, but I would have thought that for them the attractiveness of it
started to diminish a bit when it was pointed out that it would
take an hour to fly from Goa to Bombay and then it would take at
least an hour and a half from the airport at Bombay to the ground.
Whether in fact some of them have gone of f early or not, I don't
know. JOURNALIST: Do you think that these CHOGM meetings are
excessively long? cut down--to be out of the country for
nine days for CHOGM alone?
PM: Yes, fair question. I'd like to see them shorter. I can
s ay that because you are quite right. It: is a long time to be
out of the country. You've got to take the example we've had
particularly in this CHOGM of Grenada. It is not a thing
which would have lent itself to an easy resolution. If you
consider how it has been spread out. The preliminary discussion
formally camne on Thursday and you get down here and all of a
sudden we then had further formal discussions and then a
working committee and then coming back. When you've got an
item like Grenada that is probably going to take a fair spread
of time and it would be difficult to see how it could have been
handled any inorc expeditiously than. it was, I guess. If you
didn' t hiave Grenaida type si tuatiotis I think you proba-bly couldc
shorten them somewhat. It would be desirable, I think.
JOURNALIST: Would that be getting rid of the retreat or
reducing executive sessions?
PM: I think there is an argument for keeping the retreat. I
have had the opportunity here of having a number of interesting
bilateral discussions which quite obviously are easy to be
done in an environment like this. So I would see some case
not for abolishing the retreat. But, even perhaps lengthening
the retreat, but making sure that in the retreat structure
you had, as we have had, quite a bit of formal meeting. I
have heard expressions from a number of people that they thought
it was a case for shortening of it and, you know, that is
my sort of prima facie view.
JOURNALIST: Can we just ask you on the basis of the experience
you have had so far at your first CHOGM, just what sort
of utility you think there is in the Commonwealth as a forum
to put it bluntly, what extent you have wasted your time as
opposed to having the capacity to do something constructive?
PM: I certainly it is not a waste of time. I think, if you
just look at this CHOGM, that you see evidence of its
effectiveness in a number of ways. Take Grenada, for instance.
I think that the international and domestic discussion, by
which I mean in each country the domestic discussion can be
changed. I think in the international apprehension can be
changed by the fact that here you have had the Caribbean
countries the majority of whom supported the actions those
who didn't and African groups who were obviously very
critical of the United States. Now, all the groups sat down
together, listened to the exposition of what was involved
and have come up with an agreed position. It seems to me that
it must affect the understanding and debate about the issue.
It is very difficult to see how you could have got that in
anything out of the Commonwealth context. Cyprus again it
seems to me that the fact that you've got a pretty diverse
group of people again a document condemning the UBI, giving
support to Kyprianou, but then importantly going on to
establish a group which will work with the United Nations
and may have a better chance of operating the United Nations and
trying to resolve that issue. That seems to me to be very much
a plus. So, there's two examples. In respect of the more
general issues, like internationd1 security and disarmament,
we ' ye got to wait and see what sort of a document we can come up
with on that. Although there is one point specifically that
I referred to which is going to be mentioned in that and is
also mentioned in the Grenada document, and that is the question
of the security of small states and the Commonwealth is going
to set up a study group to look at this question of the security
of small states to see whether in the Commonwealth context there
are some things that may be able to be done which addresses that
problem. Now, it's too early to say whether anything will come
out of it, but it's obviously a genuine area of concern and the
Commonwealth does seem to be a body which consistently looks
at that issue and it may be able to come up wiL. h something. / 6.
JOURNALIST: Will Australia be represented on that
PM: There is no decision yet about that would be done, at
T-east initially, within the Commonwealth Secretariat, I would
think and then
JOURNALIST: chairing the economic discussions on the
retreat, continuing on from your Friday
PM: I've had well, this is an item of news interest, I suppose,
wihat I'm going to go through now. Specifically I have indicated
to Mr. Mugabe of Zimbabwe, to Kenneth Kuanda of Zambia and
. Nyere of Tanzania that Australia will make available
additional wheat aid. The details of that will be worked out.
I'll get those three together to have some preliminary
discussions with officials in New Delhi, then we'll take it up
and try to finalise that quite quickly because they are
suffering from a very significant drought in their area. Their
crops have been substantially reduced and each of those three
leaders have expressed their gratitude to us for that action.
I had quite a long discussion with Nyere about the problems
in their economy, as I have with others, and it is that sort
of discussion rather than going onto the global type of things
that I addressed in the meeting in Delhi on Friday. It has
been very interesting to have those sort of talks.
JOURNALIST: Have you spoken to Mrs. Thatcher since your
contribution on Friday?
PM: Yes.
JOURNALIST: Who have you had the bilateral meetings with
specifically? PM: Well, I've had three that I've just mentioned. I've had
talks with President Kyprianou of Cyprus. I've had talks with
from Western Samoa on talks we had at the Pacific Forum
in Canberra and talks with Michael. Somare and Pierre Trudeau
said he wanted to have a yarn to me. I'll take the opportunity
of doing that today.
JOURNALIST: Have you decided what is going to happen with
CHOGRM PM. That is still to come up.
JOURNALIST: Where is the next CHOGM? Have they decided that yet?
PM: No, that hasn't come up for discussion yet and there is
nothing definite about any of these, but there are possibilities
that are being floated around. Trinidad was mentioned as one
of the possibilities wasn't it?
Bahamas.
PM: Bahamas and Trinidad and Canada and Lhen just yesterday there
was some mention vaguely that Fiji could be. Now, that will be
picked up obviously before we leave. / 7
JOURNALIST: What has happened to the suggestion of Trudeau
going to Peking? Is that on or not on?
PM: JOURNALIST: There was a suggestion last night that Trudeau
was going to Peking.
PM: Well, he said to me at the opening meeting that he as it
sodnow, he was going to be meeting the Premier in Canada
in middle to late January and he indicated that he would go
there before then if he could and I believe he is assuming
that possibility and I think he may be going before.
interjections
PM: Has it been
Well, yes, I think he's going next week.
JOURNALIST: He's going tonight.
PM: Well, I knew that, but I just didn't want to say it if he
hadn JOURNALIST: Can we ask you what is your reaction to Trudeau's
tri-p to Peking? Do you think it can be useful in this sort
of thing he is trying to pursue?
PM: Yes, obviously it has the possibility of being useful.
of CHOGM and for hours now we've got to get them all to
agree and I just don't know ~ hat the chances of that are, but
I wish him well.
JOURNALIST: foreign policy. After this meeting with
Commonwealth leaders, do you think you might shift the focus
a little bit more towards Africa as a result?
PM: No, I wouldn't think. No, we wouldn't. And in saying, no,
we wouldn't, we-emphasise that we in no sense have said we
didn't maintain a very real interest in what was happening in
Africa and from what I've just said now, there is proof of
that with the additional aid we are going to give to those three
countries. We have made clear from the beginning that we see
a major thrust of our policy as being in the region and nothing
has happened here to change that. But, I repeat, don't carry
the implication that we don't maintain our interest in other
areas. of course we do and it won't be just a formal thing.
When we think we can be of some assistance, we will and that is
evidenced by the fact that Bill Hayden is in January and
February going to the Middle East and then to visit the East
African countries as well. So we've got a proper balance in
these things. I must say in respect of our region, probably
the person I've spent more time with throughtout the conference,
not just here but in Delhi, has been Lee Kuan Yew. We've had a
number of continuing talks and I believe that we've got to
finalise it but when I go to South Korea, Japani, China and
Hong Kong, we will be going into Singapore on the way.
8.
JOURNALIST: On the way there or on the way back?
PM: On the way, I would think.
JOURNALIST: Just on that point. In these talks you've had
with Lee, has there been any discussion about the resumption
of the official dialogue between Australia and ASEAN?
PM: No, what we--it was referred to and we just both expect
i-t will flow normally they should have their next meeting
in January and we just assume that the talks will pick up
after that.