Subject:
APEC; Australia-China relations; climate change; trade; security.
E&OE...
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to welcome His Excellency, the President of China, to Australia again. I will say a few remarks and then I will invite the President to deliver a few remarks and then we'll take two questions from each of the press parties. Our meeting this morning has been a wonderful opportunity to reaffirm an already very strong bilateral relationship. It's given me an opportunity to reaffirm a very strong belief of mine and that is that China's growth is not only good for China, but it is good for the whole world. The growth in economic ties between Australia and China over the last 10 years has been nothing short of stunning. I can quote many figures, but let me quote two which underline the characteristics of the relationship. The President and I this morning witnessed the signing of an agreement for the supply of LNG by an Australian consortium to China worth $35 billion. And at some 90,000, China represents the largest source of foreign students coming to Australia. A number of specific announcements have come out of our discussions, let me refer to three of them. The first is the agreement between the two of us to commence a strategic dialogue between Australia and China which will enable us through a formal mechanism to regularly traverse all details of this very important relationship. And then out of the $50 million extra that Australia has allocated to the Asia-Pacific Partnership, the AP6, some $20 million will be directed towards clean coal technology projects under the umbrella of the agreement signed between Australia and China concerning clean coal cooperation earlier this year. And I very warmly welcome the agreement concluded whereby the Adelaide Zoo will take the delivery of two Chinese pandas, and that is a very warm gesture on the part of His Excellency's country which will be widely appreciated in our country. Let me finish my remarks by saying that this is a great relationship, in great shape made even stronger by your visit Mr President; you are most welcome in our country.
PRESIDENT HU:
Ladies and gentlemen I am very happy to be here. To begin with, please allow me to convey the warm greetings and the best wishes of the Chinese people to the Australian people. Just now I had very productive talks with Prime Minister Howard and he and I had an in-depth exchange of views on how to further the China-Australia relationship and our regional and international issues of mutual interests. He and I also reached broad agreement. We are both satisfied and heartened by the good growth momentum in our relationship. We both believe that although China and Australia are different in terms of national conditions, we do share broad common interests. Our relationship has a solid, political foundation, profound popular support and huge potential for future growth. To further grow the Australia-China relationship will not only benefit the peoples of our two countries, but will also contribute to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and to the world at large. We both agree to continue to build and grow this relationship from a long-term and a strategic perspective and we agree to maintain the high level exchange of visits and continue to facilitate our mutually beneficial cooperation in the economy, trade, energy and resources. In addition, we are going to continue our efforts to expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges. We are going to increase our consultation and cooperation on major regional and international issues and accommodate each others concerns. We are going to work together to advance the relationship of all-round cooperation. As Prime Minister Howard already mentioned just now that he and I agreed to establish an annual strategic dialogue mechanism between China and Australia. I hope that with this strategic dialogue mechanism in place, we will be able to further develop our bilateral relationship and increase our dialogue and cooperation on major regional and international issues concerning peace and development. As our friends may know China and Australia have just signed a number of agreements on their cooperation in economy, trade, energy and judicial areas and very soon we are also going to release a joint statement between the two countries on climate change and energy and this has fully shown that our comprehensive and cooperative relationship is full of vitality and still has vast potentials to tap. As you may also know the Chinese side has decided to provide a pair of giant pandas to the Adelaide Zoo for cooperative research with the Chinese side, and I would like to stress here that this is the first time that a pair of China's giant pandas have ever settled in Australia, and to be more specific in the southern hemisphere. I believe that this will certainly become a new symbol of our friendship.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you very much. Now can we start with a question from the Chinese media party?
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister Howard, I have the following question and just now in your opening remarks you said that China's growth is not only good for the China-Australia relationship, but also for the whole world. And you also announced the establishment of the strategic dialogue between the two countries, so my question is that what do you have in mind Mr Prime Minister in strengthening cooperation with China in regional and international affairs?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
What I actually said was that China's growth is not only good for China, but also good for the whole world. But I also agree with you in saying that China's growth is very good for Australia. I see the strategic dialogue as an instrument of further expanding the horizons of the relationship and an expression of long-term good faith and long-term confidence in the relationship by both China and Australia. Now a question from the Australian media, Catherine McGrath.
JOURNALIST:
Catherine McGrath from Australia Network, the ABC's international satellite service. Will China agree to aspirational goals for greenhouse gas emissions at this APEC or should it be left to the UN meeting in Bali? And after that, Prime Minister Howard your view on the range of Asian views on this issue.
PRESIDENT HU:
The Chinese Government takes the tackling of climate change very seriously. As a matter of fact, just days ago when I had a conversation with Prime Minister Howard on the telephone, I made it very clear to him that the Chinese side is supportive of discussing this matter at the APEC meeting and we also support the issuance of the Sydney Declaration at the APEC meeting focussing on climate change. We very much hope that in this Sydney declaration it will give full expression to the position that the UN framework convention on climate change should remain the main channel for the international efforts to tackle climate change and it should also give full expression to the principles set in the convention namely the common, but differentiated responsibilities. We hope that with the release of the Sydney Declaration the member economies of APEC will be able to send a clear signal to the international community to show their strong will and common resolve in tackling climate change.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
My only comment is that I will wait for the meeting to hear the views of other economies. Can we have another question from the Chinese media?
JOURNALIST:
I am with the Chinese media and I have a question for President Hu Jintao. Recently the international media have questioned the quality and the safety of Chinese products and what's your view on that. I would also like to know that what kind of steps has the Chinese Government taken in response to these international concerns?
PRESIDENT HU:
The first point I would like to make is that the Chinese Government has always taken the quality of Chinese products and the safety of Chinese food very seriously and we have enforced very strict inspection and examination procedures throughout the whole process of the manufacturing of the Chinese products, and we have also put in place a fairly complete regulation and monitoring system for product quality and food safety. Take food for example. Between the year 2004 and the first half of 2007, 99 per cent of Chinese exports to the United States, Japan and the European Union are up to standard. Recently some international media have questioned the quality of Chinese products and the safety of Chinese food. The Chinese Government takes this international opinion quite seriously and we have conducted very serious investigations into this matter, and if there is any wrongdoing proven on the part of the Chinese companies, we have already taken, held those companies involved accountable according to law. The Chinese side has also adopted a number of important measures to improve product quality and food safety and we have established a leading group in charge of product quality and food safety and we are also making efforts to improve the legal and regulatory framework in this regard. We have now been engaged in efforts to launch special campaigns nationwide to improve product quality and food safety. To further improve the product quality and food safety is actually a common task facing the whole international community. The Chinese side is willing and ready to work together with the international community to step up cooperation in quality inspection and examination and further deepen the mutually beneficial economic cooperation and trade. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Final question from the Australian media, Paul Bongiorno.
JOURNALIST:
Thank you Prime Minister, Paul Bongiorno, Network 10 television news. Mr President on Saturday, Australia, Japan and the United States will hold a trilateral meeting, how do you view the increasing strategic ties between these three countries, how do you view your exclusion, do you see it as that, and do you view it as a threat to China?
PRESIDENT HU:
As for what is actually the content or the nature of the trilateral cooperation, I think the leaders from the United States, Japan and Australia, Prime Minister Howard are in a much better position to answer this question. This being said, what I have to say here is that the Chinese side has always believed that countries in this region should increase their dialogue and cooperation on the basis of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation to attain common security and achieve common development. We believe that to establish a harmonious and stable Asia-Pacific region serves the interests of China and Australia and the common interests of all countries in the region.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
All I can say is that the trilateral security dialogue between Australia, the United States and Japan is not directed at anyone anymore than the strategic dialogue between China and Australia which I have just announced is directed at anyone.
[ends]