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41 PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH GIVEN BY THE PRIME MINIS-TER AT THE
JAPANESE PRESS CLUB 18 JUNE 1976
My visit to your country is the first I have made to a major power
since becoming Prime Minister. It is no accident that this is so.
* It is a matter of deliberate choice and considered priority.
Our bilateral relationship with Japan is of the utmost importance.
And there is no country which has a great role to play in the future
of Asia and the Pacific.
In achieving the conditions for stable and peaceful development
in this region, Japan's contribution will be crucial. We also
believe that Australia has an important part to play in achieving
this goal.
During the last few days I have spoken several times about the
trade and economic relationship that exists between us. This
relationship is enormously important in itself. It is also
important in that it provides a secure foundation -based on
mutual advantage, complementary resources and need -on which
to build a wider, more comprehensive relationship.
SThe Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation which your Prime Minister
and I have signed recognises the fundamental importance of our
economic relationship. The treaty seeks to strengthen our
economic relations and place it on a more reliable and dependable
footing.
But it is more than that. The Treaty's overriding significance is
that it provides tangible evidence of a will on the part of Australia
and Japan to lend greater political substance to our dealings and
work towards more certain relations based on close friendship,
understanding and shared interests. It is one indicator of
Japan's importance that Australia has not entered such an agreement
with any other country.
It is the non-economic aspects of our relationship that I would
like to focus on today.
Japan and Australia are two democratic and economically developed
island countries. Both can either be described as being on the
western rim of the Pacific basin or as adjacent to the Asian
continent. The different descriptions are not without significance. They
indicate the need, the necessity, for our countries to concern
themselves with possibilities and problems in both directions. 2/
more immediately, our two countries share a number of interests
* and concerns. We are both democratic states with a respect for
democratic institutions and for the human rights implied by these
institutions. In a world where these institutions are under increasing challenge,
our two countries bear a heavy responsibility to show that democracy
has the capacity to respond to the ever-changing demands made upon
it. We further share a deep concern for the maintenance of peace
and security in the Asian-Pacific region.
The maintenance of a stable balance between the great powers is of
critical importance to both of us. This is, in fact, a concern that
we share with all those concerned for the maintenance of peace and
stability. Both of us have fundamental alliances across the Pacific, with the
United States of America.
Apart from our own efforts, it is to these alliances more thananything
else, that we look as a protection for our security.
We therefore have a common interest in ensuring America's continued
interest in and commitment to the West Pacific.
This is not just a selfish interest. It is based on a recognition
that a convincing American presence is the key element in the
maintenance of peace and stability in the region as a whole.
When it seemed that the American presence in Asia could be taken
for granted it was subject to much hostile criticism much of it
from outside the region. Now that it is less certain, its value
is much more widely realised.
Now, those countries which place a high value on their American
alliances should both make this clear and act in ways which will
encourage a continuing American participation.
While there are inevitable difficulties from time to time in
relating to a country as powerful as the United States, these
should always be seen in the context of the long term importance
of this participation.
Australia will be doing what it can to facilitate the performance
by the United States of the role which only the world's greatest
free power can play.
China also has a key part to play in the stability of the region.
During my visit to Peking, I shall be concerned to see how China
perceives her role.
Australia shares with Japan, a concern for stability in the Indian
ocean. Trade links vital to both of us pass through this Ocean.
The Australian Government has supported the development by the
United States of logistic facilities at Diego Garcia because we
believe that stability in the area requires a balance which these
facilities will help to maintain. 3/
It is, of course, our strong hope that the superpowers will not
embark on unrestricted competition in the Indian Ocean, but rather
that the balance can be maintained there at a relatively low level.
The Australian Government is fully aware that in North East Asia
Japan is necessarily involved in one of the most complex and
difficult international situations which exists today. A
situation involving four of the great powers and a bitterly
divided country. A situation which requires the utmost delicacy
and patience, and in which there are no easy options.
In this context we welcome the Japanese Government's ratification
of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We recognise what was involved
in deciding to remain the only one of the four major powers in the
region to forego nuclear weapons.
In a world threatened by nuclear proliferation it sets a courageous
example. The region in which the interests of Japan and Australia come
closest together is South East Asia. For you this region is
obviously important in terms of trade and investment, and also
because some of your most important trade routes pass through it.
For us, it also has great strategic, political and economic
importance. Australia will be seeking to establish as broad relations as possible
with the countries of South East Asia. We want to identify and
develop further areas of practical cooperation on shared political
and strategic interests. Mutual non-interference between states and
a commitment to the peaceful resolution of differences is of course,
essential to the peaceful development of the region.
It would not, we believe, be in the interests of the region's
0 peaceful development for mutually exclusive groupings to develop
which could foster antagonism at the expense of social and economic
development. Australia stands ready to explore with the new Governments in
Indo-China, the development of relations of mutual benefit.
But I would suggest that for both our countries South East Asia has
an importance which transcends all these considerations. The
countries of this region have a claim on us in human and moral
terms. We, in our relations with them have our most serious
opportunity to show our capacity to be good and responsible citizens
in our part of the world.
Let me be quite clear about this. What is involved is not merely
a matter of giving material aid. Nor is it a matter of Australia
and Japan getting together to work out some schemes of assistance.
The countries of South East Asia would rightly scorn such an
approach. They are proud and resilient countries who value
independence above everything.
The thing which they value most is the respect which is rightfully
theirs. In terms of assistance, there must be full and adequate
consultation. 4/
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Japan was the country which first successfully overcame the
problem of moving very rapidly from a traditional to a modern
society. It must have much to offer others who are following
the same path.
These obligations are not, of course, peculiar to Japan and
Australia. They are obligations on all the developed countries
which have been involved in South East Asia. And our two
countries, as two of the world's great trading nations have interests
and responsibilities which extend far beyond the region.
This is particularly true of your country. A country with the
economic dynamism and the social energy of Japan has the opportunity
to play an equivalent political role in the international sphere.
This is particularly true when international relations are dominated
by economic issues. Economic issues which not only vitally affect
you but on which you are singularly well equipped to contribute.
In the last twenty-five years, Japan has astonished the world with
the fastest economic expansion in human history, with its output
growing at an annual average of 10%. The qualities that made
this possible are ones which can make an immeasurable contribution
to the peace and prosperity of the world during the remaining
twenty-five years of this century, should you so determine.
Giventhe similarity of our independent objectives it is clear that
the further development of the relations between us, foreshadowed
in the Basic Treaty, can be of great benefit to all countries of
that region.
The prosperity of both countries is secured the more our relationship
develops, and out of that prosperity comes a greater capacity to
help in our own ways the developing countries of the region.
Ours must be an outward looking relationship, conscious of the
responsibilities we have to the developing nations.
How we co-operate together over the coming years will depend to a
considerable extent on how well we understand each other and can
empathise with each other. This will depend on how well we
understand each other's cultures.
It is unfortunately true that cultural relations are sometimes
treated by politicans as not quite a serious matter, not quite as
serious as, say trade and technology.
This is a profound mistake. For two peoples as different in their
heritage as our two peoples are, a deepening of relationships will
ultimately be dependent on a further understanding of each other's
cultures. It will require an extension of opportunities to meet
in circumstances which promote such understanding.
Unfortunately, even when Australians and Japanese see each other
there is often no real meeting of minds. They Pee each other from
behind the tinted windows of tourist buses, or within the security
of groups of their fellow countrymen, or in the formal conditions
of conferences.
This is a state of affairs which we are concerned to see change.
Trhe signature in 1974 of the Australia-Japan Cultural Agreement
was a valuable step towards the promotion of mutual understanding
through cultural exchange. The establishment this year by my
Government of the Australia-Japan Foundation will be a further
significant step, as will also the opening of an office of the
Japan Foundation in Sydney.
The effects of these and similar measures will not be immediate
or dramatic, but we beleive that in the long run they will be
real and significant.
I would like to turn now to say something about the discussions
your Government and we have had in the last few days.
These discussions have covered the whole range of our relationships.
They have been the kind of discussions which two countries as
closely linked as ours ought to have.
One of the most striking aspects of these discussions has been the
accord we have found between the two Governments on all fundamental
matters. In Foreign Affairs I have found that the perceptions
we have of the world are similar. obviously geography Japan
in the north, Australia in the south gives us different emphases
and at times differing immediate concerns. But in our broader
understanding of reality there are marked similarities.
In Trade as your Prime Minister has impressed on me there is a
great responsibility on the developed nations. We agreed on the
desirability of a reduction in trading barriers for the well-being
of the international economy.
We agreed that stability of trade is of great importance and that
trading difficulties can be overcome by sensible discussion -and
restraint between trading partners who have much to gain through
co-operation.
In the past there have been some disruptions in both directions;
actions we have taken to protect our industries
have restricted Japanese manufacturers' access to our
markets. the policies we have now developed in relations to
Nissan and Toyota have been welcomed by Japan and by
the companies concerned.
we in our turn have welcomed the re-opening of your
markets for beef.
I have emphasised that where difficulties arise there should be a
shared responsibility to overcome them.
* In relations such as ours, within the spirit of the
Treaty, stability of Trade requires that markets should
not be unduly disturbed or utterly denied. / 6
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There should be a sharing of the burdens, so that neither the
producers of one country nor the consumers of the other are
unduly disrupted.
I have indicated also that we welcome Japanese investment. Historically
investment in Australia has come from other sources. Change is
inevitable. Japanese investment will help to secure stability of
supply: participation in joint ventures will help provide certainty
of market access.
Throughout the discussions I have emphasised our determination
to be a reliable supplier of those materials necessary for your
factories for your prosperity.
I have stressed the need for our industries to achieve proper
commercial results through commercial negotiations. I have
indicated that it is only in exceptional circumstances that
SGovernment intervention would be necessary. I am impressed by the
way Japan is conquering her economic problems. Australia too
has been tackling similar problems with vigor in recent months,
and we too, are making progress.
There are still many matters which Ministers and Officials will
be pursuing in greater detail. One of these will be a review
of the Commerce Agreement.
Our discussions have shown that the treaty we have just signed
indeed reflects and reinforces a developing relationship of
benefit to us both.
I look forward to seeing Japan and Australia extend their links
in future years.