YUDHOYONO TRANSLATOR: This morning I had the honour to receive his Excellency, the Prime Minister of Australia Mr Kevin Rudd who is coming to Indonesia upon my invitation and who will also be my Co-Chair in the Bali Democracy Forum. And I'm glad that we just had a very good bilateral discussion with him.
To explain what we just discussed I am glad to give the Prime Minister the first opportunity to give his remarks about our meetings now.
PM RUDD: It is good to be back in Bali and it's good to be back here with our friends in Indonesia. President Yudhoyono and I met many times during the course of 2008 and it's been a challenging year for both of our countries in the midst of the global financial crisis.
We've worked we together in the meeting of the G20 in Washington, we worked well together in the most recent APEC Summit in Lima and we continue to work well together on the great challenge of climate change and the implementation of the Bali Roadmap. A Roadmap, which exists because of the President's personal intervention in a conference held here only 12 months ago.
Firstly, if I could begin by congratulating President Yudhoyono on his initiative in convening this Bali Democracy Forum. This is an important initiative because it is, the Republic of Indonesia, a newly re-formed democracy taking the message of democracy to the wider region and beyond.
In the Asia-Pacific region we have seen so much contribution from this region in the economic development of Asia and the wider world. Now also we see through this initiative of President Yudhoyono a further chapter, a further contribution from Asia to the rest of the world and that is the continuation and the expansion of the idea of democracy.
So President Yudhoyono I congratulate you on this initiative, it is a very good initiative and it is my great privilege and honour to be Co-Chair with you today. Also, his Excellency has indicated that to provide continued institutional support for the democracy process that we'll discuss at this conference today, that the Peace and Democracy Centre here in Bali will be also, established.
We in Australia because we believe in the importance of this project will become a foundation investor in this institute with an investment of three million Australian dollars.
That is because we believe this is a good initiative for Indonesia to take, one we wish to support now and into the future. Because the democratic idea is worth supporting.
A second area which the President and I discussed this morning dealt with people smuggling. And I can thank very much, the President for the continued strong and deep cooperation between our two countries on this continuing challenge.
I also express my appreciation for the decision by the Indonesian Government to submit to the Indonesian Parliament its proposal for ratification of the relevant UN Protocols dealing with people smuggling. This is an important matter for Australia and an important matter for Indonesia and an important matter for the wider region.
Secondly, I welcomed the decision by the President and Government of Indonesia to extradite Mr Ahmadi to face people smuggling charges in Australia. We regard matters relating to people smuggling as very serious indeed. And the matters surrounding Mr Ahmadi's case can now be brought before Australian courts.
Finally, on the question of people smuggling, the President and I agreed that we will further deepen our cooperation at the operational and field level in dealing with the challenges of people smuggling, into the future.
And my newly appointed National Security Adviser, Mr Duncan Lewis will be working closely with his Indonesian counterparts on extending that field cooperation to new levels.
One further area for discussion this morning was the impact on the global financial crisis and the global economic crisis on our respective economies and the challenges which lie ahead. This is important for both of us to continue to work on closely.
We have of course through Australian officials and Indonesian officials and the Finance Department of Indonesia, the Treasury Department in Australia, been working closely on Indonesian proposals for stand-by loan facilities for the future.
Australia will of course act as a friend and neighbour of Indonesia as we have done in the past decade with a billion dollar facility during a different financial crisis.
The details of this are of course being resolved between our officials. Australia is taking early and decisive action to tackle the financial crisis at many levels; at home, in the region and internationally.
And as I said to (inaudible) President, Australia in the past and today and into the future will be a good friend and good neighbour to Indonesia.
Finally, we discussed also the fact that in February next year in Sydney we will convene a major international conference on the future of the Australia-Indonesia relationship.
This will be held in Sydney between the 19th and 21st of February. We are expecting a very large delegation from our friends in Indonesia to attend. We regard this as a significant watershed in the Australia-Indonesia relationship as we bring together experts from across the fields dealing with the Australia-Indonesia relationship to help chart the next decade plus in the Australia-Indonesia relationship, for Australia this is an important relationship.
We attached great importance to it. We are in a period of great change and flux in the world at present. And it's time for our two countries to again, put our best minds and best talent and best brains together, in thinking through where we want this relationship to be in a decades' time.
Babak President thank you for your hospitality today, I appreciate it very much. And I look forward after your remarks to taking questions from ladies and gentlemen of the press.
YUDHOYONO TRANSLATOR: Thank you Prime Minister and for my part I would like to express our thanks for all the cooperation and assistance that Australia is providing us.
Our first thanks is for Australia's support and cooperation for the Institute for Peace and Democracy, which I will inaugurate today in Bali.
The second thanks is for the provision of stand-by loan for Indonesia if needed in case or if the financial situation in Indonesia requires it. As all of us know there are many countries who require financial support in all its forms, including stand-by loans, including Indonesia.
The Indonesian Government has decided that we will tackle or address the financial issue with a different format than we applied ten years ago, when we applied the direct cooperation between Indonesia and IMF. This time will be different, we will adopting a different format that is cooperation with World Bank, ADB, Japan, Australia and European Union.
The stand-by loan arrangement with Australia is placed in this context of our needs. And my next thanks is for Australia's prompt response in apprehending Indonesian citizen in Australia by the name of Ariawan who is a suspect for corruption in the BLBI Case involving some 1.9 trillion (inaudible). We hope that he can soon be extradited to Indonesia.
On trafficking in person and smuggling, we will intensify our cooperation. Now I am pleased to inform you that in the very near future Indonesia will extradite a person by the name Ahmadi of who is suspected of being involved in smuggling operation, people smuggling operation to Australia.
Ahmadi is an Iranian citizen who has been involved, who has been suspected to be involved in a number of crimes leading to people smuggling. And out courts in Indonesia have decided that he can be extradited and our Government is following up on this.
Prime Minister Rudd and I also agreed to intensify our bilateral cooperation to deal with people smuggling by stronger implementation of the Lombok Treaty, which will lead to stronger cooperation and partnership in the field so that we will have faster and more effective cooperation in dealing with transnational crimes.
I also informed the Prime Minister that Indonesia is near a process of finalising the ratification of the UN Convention, UN Convention on Transnational Crime and (inaudible) two particular protocols. Firstly, the protocol on the prevention and suppression of trafficking and prevention of trafficking in persons and second one is the protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air. That we would have a very strong legal foundation to promote our cooperation in this area.
And that is all and we will now take questions. We will take two questions, two from the Indonesia journalists and two from the Australian journalists. I will point to the Indonesian journalists and Fiona will point to the Australian journalists. The first Indonesian journalist is (inaudible) from the Jakarta post. Can you rise up please.
JOURNALIST: I was just wanting to ask about the people smuggling. Does this people smuggling issue effect the relationship between Australia and Indonesia?
YUDHOYONO TRANSLATOR: For Indonesia this is an important agenda. Important in the context of the implementation of Lombok Treaty and for our overall bilateral relations.
Of course, I do not expect to disturb our bilateral relations. In fact, on the contrary, I expect that for us to intensify our cooperation to tackle this common problem.
PM RUDD: I think I would agree with what President Yudouhono has said. This is a common challenge for both of our countries. Our law enforcement agencies work closely together. This is a challenge not unique to Australia and Indonesia. It is a global challenge, if you look at what is happening with unlawful people movements in various other parts of the world, including the Mediterranean. Therefore, it is challenge for all of us.
At a practical level, the work being done between our agencies is very good. What we have resolved today is to take it also to a even greater depth at the field level and we will work constructively along those lines with our friends in Jakarta. The fact that the Lombok Treaty makes provision, explicitly for this form of cooperation, is why we all agreed to the Lombok Treaty in the first place.
In fact I believe our work together on this will further be a reflection of how good and strong the relationship is. But can I just say this, this will be a continuing challenge for the future because there are still push factors operating in many countries around the world, and when you have push factors at work, and people are being pushed by a range of circumstances, into the arms of people smugglers, this is a reality we are all going to have to continue to confront in the years ahead.
That is why intensified security cooperation and political cooperation between our two countries and other countries is so important.
JOURNALIST: Mr Prime Minister you have announced this increase in measures regarding people smuggling problem. Will you concede that people smugglers have in fact been taking advantage of our Government's relaxed approach to asylum seekers and will these measures be enough to avoid a tragedy at sea like we have seen in the past?
PM RUDD: Well if you look at the question of people smuggling, it has never gone away. There is sometimes an erroneous view that people smugglers simply disappeared, they did not. They have been active and working over a long period of time. And if you were to compare the numbers year on year in terms of arrivals in Australia, it shows that we have had a continuing problem in recent years.
The practical challenge for us all though is simply to work together and to deal in a practical way with challenges as they arise. And the good thing about our relationship at the political level and the level of the police, intelligence and security agencies, is that this is working quite effectively, and we have decided today to take further measures to deepen that level of practical cooperation.
But to reinforce what was asked just before by the representative from the Jakarta post, this will be a continuing challenge into the future. This is going to require continued hard work by all of us and not just the Governments of Indonesia and Australia, other regional governments and other governments beyond the immediate region where we see a number of these push factors at work as well.
JOURNALIST: Welcome to Bali Prime Minister.
PM RUDD: It is good to be in Bali.
JOURNALIST: I have two questions. One to the Prime Minister is, just now you mention about the (inaudible)
TRANSLATOR: The second question was, the Bali Democracy Forum is an important initiative for Indonesia, what does Indonesia expect to achieve from this Bali Democracy Forum in terms of promotion of democracy in Indonesia and in other places, in Asia.
PM RUDD: On the first part of your question concerning the Indonesian standby loan facility. I think as President will himself, confirm in a minute, the entire scope of the facility which you have just described, namely in relation to the $5 billion plus, extends to a range of countries. I think his Excellency referred today to Australia, to Japan, to the European Union, to the World Bank and to the Asian Development Bank.
And we are simply one prospective participant in that. And secondly, the scope, as we have indicated before of our proposed participation is in the vicinity of $1 billion. Now, as I indicated before, Australia will of course act as a friend and good neighbour of Indonesia as we have done in the past, a decade ago, providing a financial facility of around about $1 billion, in a different financial crisis.
This is the sort of thing good friends and good neighbours should do to help one another in times of global financial crisis and global economic crisis. Because our government is determined to act at home decisively to support growth, to support jobs, to act regionally, to do the same, and this falls within that context, and also, to act globally as both His Excellency and myself are seeking to do through the G 20 process.
YUDHOYONO TRANSLATOR: On Bali Democracy Forum, I should point out that is a process. It is a never ending process, it is constantly evolving process. So we can always talk about democracy.
(inaudible) unique because it has Eastern values, Western values, Islamic values and even though democracy has universal applicability, it must also be matched and mixed with local conditions.
Through the Bali Democracy Forum we can each and we can all conduct a dialogue and discussions and sharing experience on how each of us will advance the democracy in our respective countries.
There are a lot of problems in the world that are due to the problems of democracy and what we need to do is to build bridges to open opportunities and Bali is just, it tries to provide the room for this dialogue and I am glad that I am able to be co-chair of this process with the Prime Minister of Australia and that is the essence of what we are trying to do with the Bali Democracy Forum.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Prime Minister 12 months ago you came to Bali as a newly elected Prime Minister and your Government gave an in principle commitment to reduce carbon emissions by between 25 and 40 per cent. Now it reads in today's paper that the Government is considering a far less ambitious target of around 10 per cent. Why has that target changed?
Secondly, President developing nations have pushed very hard for the developed world to take on targets of between 25 and 40 per cent. Are you disappointed by Australia's lack of ambition on climate change?
PM RUDD: Firstly, when I attended the Bali conference on climate change 12 months ago, the Australian Government explicitly stated at that stage that we would not be committing at that stage, to midterm targets. That is exactly what I said. And secondly, when it comes to what mid terms targets we do commit ourselves to, we will next week be releasing our white paper on the Carbon Pollution Reduction strategy for Australia, Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme for Australia, the CPRS. And that will make clear what we believe should be Australia's medium term targets.
Furthermore, we believe that this is going to be a complex negotiation for the 12 months which transpire between the Poznan conference which is under way now, and the Copenhagen conference, at which, agreement is hoped to be achieved.
There is a long way to go in terms of the overall negotiation. But in terms of our position, vis-à-vis mid terms targets, as I have said consistently in Australia, consistent with the position that we have articulated before, that will be made clear in the CPRS, Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme white paper which will be released on Monday.
Also, long term on climate change, it is important for all economies, developed and developing, to embrace the challenge of climate change. As I have said consistently in Australia, this challenge is not going away. It is not going away because of the global financial crisis. It is here and it is real and it is continuing.
The challenge for us all is to get the absolute balance right, a responsible course of action on bringing down greenhouse gas emissions, involving actions by both developed and developing countries. And secondly, making sure we get the balance right also in the context of the real challenges which confront our economy as well.
YUDHOYONO TRANSLATOR: My answer is twofold; one is general and secondly is about Indonesia's cooperation with Australia on climate change.
First on the general question the basic guiding principle of common and different responsibilities and respective capabilities. Both developed and developing countries must do more. They must invest in partnership and they must work together to achieve our common goals.
Developed countries must take the lead and in fact, developing countries also are willing to take their part, but they are unable to do so because of their lack of resources.
In moving forward I think the most important thing to do is the financing and also transfer of technology, to help us adapt and mitigate the challenge of climate change.
We also have a very cooperation between Indonesia and Australia especially on the question of forestry management and we are actively trying to improve and implement this cooperation.
In my meetings with Prime Minister Rudd, we always discuss how Indonesia and Australia can cooperate closer both bilaterally and also multilaterally to tackle the challenge of climate change. Thank you very much.