PRIME MINISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA
HON. R. J. L. HAWKE A. C. M. P.
DIETNEMBERS ASSOCIATION BREAKFAST
TOKYO 19 SEPTEMBER 1990
Mr Mutoh, Chairman of the Japan-Australia Dietmembers
Friendship League, distinguished members and other guests.
Too often visits such as this are occasions, at least in
public speeches, for fairly pious platitudes, for proffering
the acceptable cliches and avoiding, at all costs, the
delicate or the controversial.
The times we live in and the relationship between our two
nations are too important for this.
And so, without presumption, I wish to speak, as a friend,
directly on issues fundamental to these times and that.
relationship. And there is one message I believe a very
important message which I want to put to this influential
group at the beginning of my official visit to Japan.
It is a message of the firmest confidence for the future of
relations between Australia and Japan, as we enter a new
phase of our friendship within a new world order.
Nine decades ago, at the dawn of the twentieth century, the
six Australian colonies forged a Federal union and created a
single independent nation on our vast continent.
The observer of the Australia-Japan relationship today
cannot fail to be struck by the precise division of those
nine decades into two equal halves. In the first 45 years,
Australians normally regarded Japan as a threat to be
feared; in the second 45 years, Australia and Japan have put
the past behind them and built a stable, business-like,
increasingly prosperous and increasingly friendly
relationship. That relationship has relied on three strong pillars: our
deeply shared commitment to democracy and the rule of law;
our alliance relationships with the United States that
provide the northern and southern anchors of strategic
security in our region; and the complementarity of our
economic strengths that has created a vast and productive
commercial exchange of, principally, our raw materials for
your manufactured goods.
2.
Today each of these pillars remains intact, important and
vital to our relationship.
Yet as we observe the rapid changes taking place in the
world around us
the more constructive superpower relationships, the
astonishing overthrow of the old undemocratic regimes
of Eastern Europe, the unanimity with which the world
community is managing the first post-Cold War crisis in
the Persian Gulf, the seemingly unstoppable dynamism of
our own region
and as our own two societies continue to change
I believe we should ask whether we should be creating a new
phase in our relationship.
For Japan's part, you are no longer merely an emerging
economic power, you are truly a global giant. You lead the
world in crucial industries and your main economic dilemma
a rare and happy one is how to allocate the massive
savings surpluses you have accumulated.
This economic strength is calling forth a louder and more
authoritative influence for Japan in global and regional
affairs and I mean political and strategic affairs, not
just economic. That trend, apparent before, has been
reinforced by the way in which Cold War tensions have been
replaced by the new and complex problems of multipolar
diplomacy and strategy.
For Australia's part, we too are engaging the world on new
terms. We have accepted the need for economic flexibility;
we have steadily internationalised our economy and we are
becoming steadily more capable of sophisticated economic
linkages. And we have proven our commitment to multilateral
diplomacy that is diligent, credible and increasingly
respected.
With all this, I believe we are entitled to conclude that
Australia and Japan should indeed be on the threshold of a
new, and even closer, and certainly more diverse and
sophisticated relationship a third phase in the history of
our relationship that will take us into the next century not
only as people who do a lot of business together but as
colleagues, constructive partners and friends.
Increasingly, we will see each other as more than
complementary and valuable markets.
Australia will look to Japan as a source of the most modern
technologies; a source of diverse investment funds; a magnet
for Australian exports and investment; a regional friend
exercising international political influence.
3.
And I believe Japan will look to Australia as a creative,
vigorous, increasingly diversified partner in an
economically dynamic region; a self-reliant and
self-confident nation constructively involved in the great
issues of our region and our world; a decent, tolerant,
vibrant society enriched by migrants from around the globe
not to forget, of course, an exciting land offering a warm
welcome to your tourists.
These are the kinds of issues that I look forward to
discussing with Prime Minister Kaifu, with you, Mr Mutoh,
and with other political and business leaders on this visit.
Australia and Japan need to broaden our relations to ensure
that they reflect the changing realities and needs of the
1990s.
This morning I want to address in more detail one aspect,
and a critically important one, of that multifaceted task:
the international context in which our bilateral relations
will be operating.
The magnitude of the global changes of recent years leaves
me in no doubt that we have witnessed a permanent and
fundamental shift in international relationships.
But what comes next is not yet clear. The very phrase
" post-Cold War period" sums up much of the uncertainty of
this time. It suggests, correctly, that the only thing we
are sure of is what has gone before us. We do not know what
is yet to come.
We do know that the ending of the Cold War has not led to
the un-invention of weapons of mass destruction nuclear,
chemical or biological. And it has not led to the
disappearance of big armies, national rivalries or reckless
leaders.
And we know too, that different regions of the globe still
have their distinct security problems something, I know,
which is very evident here in Japan as you look at the
complicated security equation in Northeast Asia.
In particular, to those who might have forgotten it in the
euphoria of crumbling walls in Europe, of emerging
superpower cooperation, of real progress towards strategic
nuclear disarmament, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait brought home
forcefully that the new world order does not necessarily
mean a peaceful and safe world order.
In addressing my own parliamentary colleagues on
developments in the Gulf recently, I said that Iraq's action
challenged us to define the way in which the world community
will cooperate in the years ahead. We needed to work out
how to manage such dangers which are by no means unique to
the Middle East before they arise.
4.
That is why Australia has supported the United Nations and
the international rule of law against the clear challenge
posed by Iraq. We believe all nations will suffer if
aggression goes unchecked in the Gulf; and that all nations
will benefit if the United Nations can succeed in giving
practical and irresistible expression to the outrage we all
feel at the invasion of Kuwait. This has been exemplified
by the unparalleled and very welcome cooperation between the
United States and the Soviet Union.
In the light of those judgments, my Government has
condemned Iraq's invasion absolutely;
supported the Security Council's resolutions,
calling for unconditional withdrawal;
implemented the mandatory sanctions imposed by
Security Council resolution 661 to compel that
withdrawal; deployed three ships of the Royal Australian Navy
to join the international effort to enforce those
sanctions; and supported the deployment of Western and Arab
forces to the Gulf, to defend Saudi Arabia and to
deter further Iraqi aggression.
I should add that throughout the difficult weeks since
2 August, my Government has welcomed and admired the clarity
of purpose, the decisive action and the sense of
responsibility which the United States has displayed in
leading the international response to Iraq's aggression.
We deplore the circumstances which might make it necessary
to use military force in the Gulf. But we accept that peace
is bought at too high a price if that price is the
appeasement of aggression.
In this sense, the Gulf crisis has been the first important
international test of the post-Cold War period.
And it is one reason why my visit to Tokyo at this time has
an importance which extends beyond our bilateral
relationship. More than on any other of my three visits to
Japan as Prime Minister, I wish on this occasion to talk to
leaders in Japan about our views of the world and the roles
we perceive for each other in the world.
Because if indeed the new world order is to be peaceful and
safe if we are to create a new Concert of Nations, which,
even more than the Concert of Europe after the Napoleonic
wars, can provide a durable multipolar balance of power
then, make no mistake, Japan will have a critical
contribution to make.
Indeed, it is true to say that today no framework for the
conduct of international affairs could be regarded as
adequate or complete if it lacked Japanese commitment and
involvement. The days are gone when Japan's international
political influence can or should lag far behind its
economic strength and economic interests. The power of your
economy, the strength of your democracy, the talents of your
people, entitle you to a place of leadership as of right.
I want to make it very clear to you that Australia welcomes
that. And we are confident that Japan has the commitment,
courage and understanding necessary to exercise the
responsibilities of leadership that go hand in hand with
that right.
So we hope that Japan will be actively involved in the
affairs of the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. In
particular, we welcome Japan's recognition that its
strategic interests and international responsibilities are
deeply engaged in the Persian Gulf, and we welcome your
decision thus far to support the international response to
Iraq's aggression, by financial and other measures.
In the region, for all its economic dynamism, an unswerving
commitment to peace cannot yet be taken for granted. For
our own sakes and for the sake of the region, Australia and
Japan want to see peace, prosperity and democracy.
I sincerely welcomed Prime Minister Kaifu's work in ensuring
that regional issues were given proper attention at the
Houston summit meeting of the G7. We have appreciated
Japan's active involvement in the new processes of Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation and in the search for a
comprehensive settlement in Cambodia. And we welcome the
emerging Japanese involvement in regional environmental
issues, such as your regional suspension of drift net
fishing. Let me point out however that Australia's position
is for a global ban on this barbaric practice.
We are fortunate in all this to have in the United Nations
an organisation beginning to fulfil the aspirations of its
founders the aspirations that international cooperation
can keep the world peaceful. But it is in line with
everything that I have said today that the structure of the
United Nations needs to be reviewed and reformed so as to
reflect contemporary realities including the reflection,
much more adequately than under present arrangements, of
Japan's own status, contribution and role.
6.
Mr Minister
With Japan's important economic strengths come equally
important economic responsibilities. You well understand
the significance for global economic prosperity of the
maintenance of the open multilateral trading system the
system which has done so much to guarantee the prosperity of
our countries over nearly half a century. In this area,
too, Japanese leadership will be necessary to ensure that
the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations does
not fail. For if it does, the consequences for the world
will be disastrous.
In the collapse of the international trading system in the
1930s, we have a stark reminder of what might happen if
narrow and short-term political self-interest is allowed to
prevail over what we all know to be our long-term common
interest.
We must avoid that outcome at all costs, and Japan's help in
preventing it will be essential. It would be a tragic irony
if, at a time when the military and ideological issues which
have threatened peace for much of the past four decades are
being resolved, the world descends into conflict over
international trade questions.
So let me be quite clear: Japan's preparedness to achieve
genuine reform of trade rules including specifically your
willingness to liberalise further your domestic agricultural
protection will be a true test, and an appropriate one, of
your leadership in the 1990s.
Further liberalisation would directly benefit competitive
agricultural producers, to be sure and it would also apply
very welcome pressure on the other protectionist economies,
notably the European Community, to match your reforms with
rational measures of their own.
Mr Mutoh, distinguished members,
Ultimately it will be up to Japan to determine how you will
resolve these issues of leadership that I have raised today.
Let me close, however, on a very candid note.
We want Japan to be more forthcoming, more confident, more
creative, more outspoken than it has been in the past. Do
not hold back, for you have much to contribute. As we move
into a new exciting era of international relations, this
great country, with its remarkable capacity to adapt to
change and its unparalleled economic and technological
achievements, can and should be an increasingly important
leader for the good of our region and for the good of the
world.