Thank you very much Prime Minister Fukuda, both to yourself and to the Government and people of Japan for making myself and my wife Therese feel so welcome in this beautiful country.
We've enjoyed our stay, our visit in Hiroshima, in Kyoto, in Nagoya, Yokohama and now here in Tokyo.
Australia has a strong friend and partner in Japan and Australia has a strong friend and partner in Prime Minister Fukuda.
Australia and Japan have a comprehensive strategic security and economic partnership. Our partnership is not just based on common interest, it is also based on common values and an enduring friendship.
We are both democracies. We are both open economies. We are both strong allies of the United States. We have so much in common that we can actually deliver great good to the world acting in partnership together.
The Prime Minister and I have agreed to expand our bilateral security cooperation and our trilateral security cooperation with our common ally the United States. We believe this enhances the stability of the Asia Pacific region.
I thank Prime Minister Fukuda for Japan's positive response to Australia's proposal for an international commission on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
I visited Hiroshima on my first day here in Japan as Prime Minister. It was the first time an Australia Prime Minister has visited Hiroshima. And I understand it was one of the first times that any serving western head of government has visited Hiroshima. We should learn from Hiroshima and act together globally on the question of nuclear non-proliferation and the future of a nuclear weapons free world.
We've agreed as Prime Minsters to continue to expand our economic relationship, inject further efforts into the FTA negotiations and I particularly appreciate our inclusion in our joint declaration today on the importance of the services trade also between our two countries and its future.
I acknowledge and appreciate the strong global leadership displayed by Prime Minister Fukuda on the challenge which we all face on climate change. I appreciate also his strong statement of support for Australia's decision to ratify Kyoto. We will work together in the lead up to the G8 outreach meeting, and the major economies meeting, and Australia looks forward to working closely with Prime Minister Fukuda's Government in making those meetings a success.
We also discussed global oil prices, this great global oil shock which all of our economies are experiencing at present. And the impact on petrol prices. And we've agreed to work closely together on international action on this question. And I understand it will be a matter for discussion also at the G8 Summit.
Prime Minister Fukuda on regional cooperation and institutions made an important speech on the 22nd May about Japan's future engagement with our own region.
I strongly support the thrust of his speech and I thank Japan for their positive response to the proposal and the discussions associated with the proposal that I put forward for an Asia Pacific community. We look forward to working with each other on advancing these proposals for the future of our region together.
On whaling, Prime Minister Fukuda and I agreed that you can have disagreements between friends. It's one of the good products of us both being strong democracies. We've also agree that this disagreement should not undermine in any way the strength and positive nature of our overall bilateral relationship and that we'll be working in the period ahead diplomatically in search of a solution on this question.
And finally, I've extended an invitation to Prime Minister Fukuda to visit Australia next year as my guest. In Japan here the other day, at one of the AEON supermarkets, I had a chance to eat some Aussie Beef here in Tokyo. If the Prime Minister could come to Australia I look forward to having a barbeque at the Prime Minister's Lodge in Canberra and throwing some Aussie Beef on the barbeque for you.
And thank you very much.