Subjects: Visit to Washington.
E&OE...........
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, the week ahead. What does it hold for you and what are you hoping to achieve?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it';s an opportunity to engage with the Administration and the Congress at the very highest level. I look forward to seeing the President on Thursday, an opportunity to address the joint sitting of Congress, to reaffirm the importance of our friendship and our alliance with the United States. Obviously in talks with other members of the Administration to discuss issues like trade where there are some obvious differences. But what we have to try and do is look forward and to promote the cause of liberal trade around the world because it is in Australia';s interests and indeed the interests of the world that that occur.
JOURNALIST:
Given that the President doesn';t yet have trade promotion authority, what can you do Prime Minister towards promoting a bilateral trade agreement while you are here?
PRIME MINISTER:
I';ve already indicated that until he gets trade promotion authority, the Administration is not in a position to start negotiating with individual countries. But in advance of that, it is quite possible for example when I talk to Mr Zoelick or to the Commerce Secretary to talk about many of the issues that are involved. You can talk about things in advance of the formal negotiation, but it is the case that until the Administration is given trade promotion authority, any formal negotiation simply can';t start because that is the way the American Constitution works.
JOURNALIST:
Do you carry a message about the US Farm Bill or do you simply come here treating into as spilled milk?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we';ve already conveyed a message about the Farm Bill. What you always do with these things is look to the future and work and see what you can achieve in the future. We were able to get a very good deal in relation to steel because we engaged with the Administration in the right way. Now, agriculture and the Farm Bill is obviously an infinitely more complicated and difficult issue than that. And as a serving politician myself I understand some of the domestic political realities, but also our American friends will understand me conveying to them our concern when Australian interests are damaged, as they will be if the Farm Bill is implemented in its full rigour.
JOURNALIST:
If you get one on one time with the President at that meeting what are the issues you are likely to raise with him apart from these broader issues you are talking about?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the main purpose of a meeting with the President is to engage the major elements of the alliance, but also as part and parcel of that, the war against terrorism, the situation in India and Pakistan and the Middle East. Those issues are of ongoing concern to Australia, as they are to the United States.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what feelings does it evoke for you to be back in the place you were in on September 11? In fact I understand the very building you were in at the time that the Pentagon was hit?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I';ve certainly thought about it a great deal. My wife and I were talking about it as we came in from the airport. And of course it was in this very room where I had a small press conference, and it was while that press conference was taking place, I understand the plane hit the Pentagon. So it is a rather eerie feeling. Of course a lot has happened since then and I will, when I talk to the Congress… will reaffirm the determination of the Australian people to stand with their American friends in fighting terrorism. And we are in the fight against terrorism, not as some kind of political trade off. We are there because terrorism is a threat to Australia and the values Australia holds dear as it is to America and the values that Americans hold dear.
JOURNALIST:
You';re here as the President meets with the Egyptian leader, the Israeli leader. Also Rumsfeld is in India – Pakistan. How will those issues affect the tenor of your trip?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well they will have a very big impact because we are very concerned about the Middle East. Australia is a very staunch friend of Israel';s and always has been, always will be. We also though believe very strongly in the homeland aspirations of the Palestinians, and the world has to keep urging people to negotiate and talk about a future. It is very hard of course when suicide bombings are taking place. I mean it is understandable, though regrettable, that retaliation occurs when that kind of thing happens. I mean what else does a nation do if it is attacked in that way?
JOURNALIST:
Do you think the President though will have much time to concentrate on Australian issues when he has this to deal with?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the important thing is that we are both involved in these issues. They are not just the concern of the United States. It has never been fair to expect the United States to carry all of the burden and as it were flick pass to the United States because of her immense power, all the diplomatic as well as all of the military responsibilities for dealing with these sorts of issues.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, thanks for your time.
[ends]