W-I44'
PRIME MINISTER
TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER, THE HON P. J KEATING MP
DOORSTOP, WISMA NEGARA STATE GUEST HOUSE, TUESDAY,
26 OCTOBER 1993
E& OE PROOF COPY
J: Prime Minister, you have had a very brief meeting with the Indonesian
President, can you give us some idea of what the discussion was
about?
PM: It was just a welcome and I think it had a nice relaxed air about it with
a kind of informality that one can't engender without some real basis of
a relationship which I hope we have developed over the last couple of
years. So, it was a very convivial meeting and we'll get onto the matter
of substance tomorrow, although I did have a chance on the way into
the city to talk to Foreign Minister Alatas about some of the issues.
J: What are the matters of substance Prime Minister'?
PM: Essentially I think, they are going to revolve around trade and
investment issues and most particularly of course, the forthcoming
APEC meeting in Seattle in November.
J: Will you be asking the Indonesians to agree to APEC becoming a
community?
PM: I think the Indonesian Government understands well what the Eminent
Persons Group has recommended and I think supports the general
development which APEC is taking. But, again, that is a matter for
Heads of Government and leaders at the November meeting and that
is the whole point of the meeting they will put the construction on
APEC which they think is the appropriate one.
J: Their view seems to be though softly, softly.
PM: Maybe softly, softly, but I don't think slowly, slowly. I think they have
got a nice balance between the pace of change and what it should
encompass, as I think we have as a country which has been very much
involved in the development of APEC from its inception.
J: Mr Alatas has just told us he really appreciated your remarks in
Washington on human rights, will you be going further down that path
here?
PM: What I said there was one deals with a country on the totality of its
relationship and we see the relationship with Indonesia in the broad,
that is a large country of 180 million people, very geographically close
to Australia, developing now at quite a pace and reaching out to the
world and it also has its particular problems as developing countries
do and this has been expressed in a number of ways. In part, of
course, the problems in Timor a few years ago. But, I think the
important thing is to see the relationship in the totality; we have made
our position clear about these human rights issues, but we also are not
a sort of mono-dimensional government. We are looking at Indonesia
in the broad.
J: Prime Minister, given ASEAN's importance to APEC, at Seattle if the
ASEAN leaders that are there have some doubts about changing to
any kind of community faster than perhaps you would like, will
Australia support that position?
PM: I don't think you understand well I mean the importance that the
ASEAN countries put upon the development of the Asia-Pacific or
APEC, they are more positive about this than the media generally
gives credit. Australia, as a prime mover in this has had to take all
views into account those of the major powers, China, Japan the
United States, Indonesia, those of the smaller countries, I think we
have got the balance about right.
ends