E&OE……………………………………………………………………………………
JOURNALIST:
How did your discussions go this morning with the bilaterals?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they were all very good. Mr Koizumi and I met only a few weeks ago. We talked about the terrorist threat. Both of us thought the significance of this meeting at least lay in the fact that it’s the biggest gathering of world leaders since the 11th of September and it’s crucial that leaders demonstrate a willingness to get on with normal international political life. If they’re exhorting people in their countries to do that with their own lives yet running away from international meetings or putting international meetings off because of security concerns it doesn’t set a very good example. And that is one of the reasons why I felt very strongly about coming to this meeting. It’s a point that I made in my discussions with the Chinese President and also with the Prime Minister of Thailand.
In my discussions with Jiang Zemin we both expressed very strong confidence in the state of the bilateral relationship. I don’t think the bilateral relationship between Australia and China has been in better shape for a long time, and both of us from when we first met five and a half years ago recognised that our societies are very different but if we focused very heavily on things that we had in common rather than worrying about the things we disagreed about then the relationship could be developed and strengthened. I don’t make exaggerated claims about it. I never do about these relationships. I always think that’s a bit dangerous.
But I think the relationship with the three countries whose leaders I’ve met this morning are all in very good shape.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, I know you’ve spoken to President Bush quite recently but when you get a chance to speak to him here what will you want to say to him and will you be making any special reference to the beginning of the ground offensive?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I will be talking to him about what happens next. As far as the military operation is concerned you will understand that one doesn’t telegraph all of ones punches in relation to things like that and even American Presidents have to be guided by military advice just as much as Australian Prime Ministers must be guided by military advice. But we will of course talk about the cooperation between our two countries.
JOURNALIST:
Are you saddened to hear of the American casualties? Apparently a helicopter has been shot down and at least a couple of them….
PRIME MINISTER:
I had not been informed of that. No I am, of course I am sorry to hear of that. But I had not been told of that no.
JOURNALIST:
Have you had a briefing yet on the deployment of special forces, ground forces in Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
The date of their deployment has not as yet been determined.
JOURNALIST:
I’m sorry, I mean the deployment of American special operation troops in Afghanistan today, in the last 24 hours.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven’t been - I’ve been tied up in meetings this morning so I’ll no doubt catch up with that.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] more concerned about what might happen to Australia’s…..?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well Laurie I have never disguised the fact that this could be a dangerous operation. I mean I’ve seen reports that American forces might be deployed on the ground. I’ve certainly seen those but I’ve been seeing those for some days. But there have been no Australian forces deployed as yet and no Australian forces have gone overseas as yet. And when I’m in a position to indicate when they will, and they will go overseas when the basing arrangements for them have been established.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, is there any indication from Mr Koizumi or President Jiang about their country’s future economic prospects particularly in the light of the American economic downturn and the impact of the terrorism on the world economy?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we all agree that people are less inclined to travel and that was the point that the Japanese Prime Minister made very strongly in his discussion and that applied not only to Americans but it also applied to the citizens of his country. We all agree it’s having an impact. That’s why the agenda of a body like APEC has got to be addressed. I mean we’ve got to do two things….I guess three things at this meeting. First of all everybody’s got to turn up to send a signal to the world that life goes on, it’s business as usual at an international political level. Secondly we have to make a very strong statement about terrorism. And thirdly we have got to address the fundamental agenda of APEC which is economic growth and economic openness because we need that agenda even more now than we did before the 11th of September. The terrorists will win in spades if they manage to paralyse the world economy, and that is one of their objectives. It is one of their objectives and we have to be very careful.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] parliamentary committee on defence and immigration appeared on Lateline last night and he said he’d rung the Foreign Minister over here and urged the Foreign Minister to make sure that Megawati Sukarnoputri does not meet you. What’s your reaction to that sort of ….?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m not going to comment on that. That’s an internal matter for the Indonesian Government. I’m not going to get drawn on that Glenn.
JOURNALIST:
Well what are the prospects for a meeting of the President?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’ll be seeing her during the course of the discussions and I’m quite certain that we will have an opportunity of talking.
JOURNALIST:
How would you characterise the bilateral relationship with Indonesia?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the bilateral relationship with Indonesia has been under strain ever since East Timor. It was never as strong as it was claimed to be before that, never. But it is getting better. But in the end a bilateral relationship can only be strong if it is based on mutual respect. There are a lot of things that we are cooperating on. The illegal immigration issue, let’s call a spade a spade, is a difficult issue. At present the Indonesians feel disinclined to stop the outgoing of people from their country.
JOURNALIST:
Are you disappointed about that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well disappointment is really not the sort of emotion you allow to come into something like that. It was not my expectation that this thing could be solved quickly. It will not be solved of course by some change in the political complexion of the Australian Government as so curiously alleged by Mr Beazley and Mr Brereton. It goes far deeper than that. Indonesia has other problems which I understand and I’m sensitive towards. But from our point of view we have set ourselves on a course of preventing illegal arrivals into this country. We did achieve some success yesterday with the return of that vessel. That’s the first time that has happened and we’ll continue to pursue the matter with Indonesia. But I’m not going to pursue it in a publicly aggressive fashion. There’s nothing to be achieved by that and you’ve got to understand that people coming from different cultures react to difficult situations in different ways and I don’t want to put too fine a point on the fact that a meeting is difficult to arrange or a phone call is not returned. I think that is to misunderstand the nature of different cultures with which we deal.
JOURNALIST:
Is that mutual respect that you talk about lacking in the relationship at the moment?
PRIME MINISTER:
I’m not alleging that no.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, does the resignation of the Liberal Premier of South Australia and the circumstances of it damage your chances of retaining federal Liberal seats in South Australia.
PRIME MINISTER:
No.
JOURNALIST:
Why not?
PRIME MINISTER:
Because it’s an entirely state matter and Australians have long shown a capacity to distinguish between state and federal issues.
JOURNALIST:
But isn’t it also a distraction for the state branch of the Liberal Party to be engaged in trying to choose a new Premier, somewhat acrimoniously it appears, at a time when you’re trying to fight a federal election?
PRIME MINISTER:
The state branch doesn’t choose the Premier the parliamentary party does. I can assure you Jim that the state organisation in South Australia is utterly and professionally focused on the federal election.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister when you decided to come to APEC you obviously had to calculate the impact on the federal election. Did you calculate that it was likely to win you votes or lose you votes?
PRIME MINISTER:
I thought it was the right thing to do for the country.
JOURNALIST:
But what about my question?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’ve given you my answer – the….
JOURNALIST:
You didn’t calculate the political impact?
PRIME MINISTER:
The reason that I decided to come is that I thought it was the right thing to do in the national interest. That’s why I decided to go.
JOURNALIST:
And you didn’t consider the political impact at home.
PRIME MINISTER:
I’ll leave the commentary on the political impact to others.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister do you expect Australian troops at some time to be on the ground in Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
It is entirely possible yes. As I said when I announced the deployment last week it is a deployment that does not carry any restrictions except that they have to operate in accordance with their orders, their rules of engagement. They will be under a separate Australian command. But they’re not just going for search and rescue purposes. They could be engaged on the ground. So the answer to your question is yes that is possible.
JOURNALIST:
Has there been an explicit request though from the US to have them in on the ground?
PRIME MINISTER:
That has been the whole basis of the discussion and the request and the understanding from the beginning.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, is there a chance that APEC will produce a very strong statement supporting the US led action in Afghanistan against bin Laden?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the final form of that declaration has yet to be resolved. Obviously it’s got to be looked at at the leaders’ forum. I would say that within this gathering everybody would strongly support condemnation of the terrorist attacks. People would support cooperation to stop terrorism in the future. There may be a range of views about the level of military involvement and that would vary perhaps from some countries to others. I think that is self evident that not every single country at this meeting has exactly the same level of commitment to a precise amount of military involvement. I mean that would be very strange.
JOURNALIST:
President Jiang himself has given only conditional support suggesting that there should be specific targets. How realistic in the light of that is that you’re going to get anything more than a statement of on general principle against terrorism, a motherhood statement?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don’t accept that what will come out will be just a motherhood statement. But a general denunciation of terrorism and a focus on the importance of these countries cooperating against it, that is important in itself. In the three bilateral discussions I’ve had it’s been the main substance of the discussion and it’ll be the opening part of the speech I make at the business gathering in a few moments. I mean it is dominating everybody’s thoughts. The fact that we are all here is in itself a very good thing. I think that sends a very strong signal.
JOURNALIST:
Does Mr Koizumi have any reservations about the action in Afghanistan?
PRIME MINISTER:
He certainly expressed none to me. And can I say he’s done a very courageous thing. He’s in fact secured a parliamentary approval to a change in relation to the deployment of maritime assets of Japan which will provide some support, potential support for the coalition, and he’s actually been very very helpful in relation to that.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minster, the reports out of Washington of this first assault talk about the start of a hit and run ground campaign. Is that what you would see Australia being involved in? Could you see the Australian SAS taking part in hit and run raids as part of this ground campaign?
PRIME MINISTER:
One of the things I’m going to try and establish from the beginning in relation to this is that I am not a military expert. I’m not a solider. There will be a number of things where technical advice and commentary will need to be given by a spokesman on behalf of the ADF. So I’m not saying I won’t try and answer your question but I just wanted to make the point that there will be some technical questions that I won’t presume to try and answer because I think politicians who try and become generals get themselves into all sorts of difficulty and there are plenty of examples in history of that.
This is an operation which has a defined target. It is not to subjugate the people of Afghanistan, it is not to fight the Islamic faith, it is not to achieve broad political objectives other than the eradication of terrorism. And obviously whatever military tactics are needed to achieve that end will be employed by the United States and her allies. As to what those military tactics might need to be from time to time is a matter that I will take military advice on rather than thinking that I can be an instant military expert myself.
JOURNALIST:
Are you going on Monday with Kim Beazley to Swanbourne Barracks as a couple as it were of leaders? And does that signal the start of the deployment of the SAS?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it is possible that both of us will visit the barracks. The proposition has been put and if I go I would want him to come at the same time and I would want him to have an equal opportunity to address the troops as occurred in 1998 when we weren’t in a caretaker mode and I extended that courtesy to him quite spontaneously. And I adopted the same attitude in relation to the East Timor deployment. I will not seek to play partisan politics in relation to the sending of Australian forces overseas.
There is a suggestion coming to me from the military that Monday, because both of us will be in Perth, could well be an opportunity even though the men may not be going overseas immediately after our visit, but it may well be an opportunity to do it. Now I’d be quite happy with that and I would naturally expect Mr Beazley to be given the same courtesies, the same facilitations, the same opportunity to talk to the men as I was given.
JOURNALIST:
[inaudible] expected to talk about the threat of countries turning to protectionism. How serious is that threat?
PRIME MINISTER:
It’s always a threat Michael.
[Ends]