PM: Today I had wide ranging and productive talks with President Lee over a bilateral meeting and a working lunch. I also had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Kim. I thanked President Lee for the warm hospitality that has been shown to me during my visit to Korea. I informed him that I was delighted that I could visit in the 50th anniversary year of diplomatic relations between our two countries and also during the year we've designated as the Australia-Korea Year of Friendship.
I also described to him how important it was for me to be here with Australian veterans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Kapyong and also to commemorate our Anzac Day. Korea and Australia are natural middle power partners, we are similar sized economies, trading nations and we've got shared interests in a stable and prosperous Asia-Pacific. Our discussions covered a full range of bilateral matters. We focussed, of course, on the strong economic ties between our two countries. I noted specifically to the President that there were prospects for a significant increase in LNG exports to Korea.
I reiterated to President Lee my personal commitment to concluding the Free Trade Agreement between our two countries because it will be mutually beneficial for both of our countries. I am very pleased that out of our discussions we were able to agree that the negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement should be concluded this year. I welcome this outcome and I will be instructing Australia's trade negotiators to work to this timetable. A comprehensive, high quality FTA is good for both of us. Trade means jobs for both our nations. But we also agreed on the importance of high level visits to maintain the momentum of the relationship and, in that regard, we agreed that separate bilateral meetings of our foreign affairs and defence ministers should be held on a more regular basis.
We also agreed that we should work towards foreign and defence ministers meeting in what is known as a two plus two format, that is, regular exchanges involving the foreign affairs and defence ministers of both nations. I'm also pleased to announce that following our discussions, President Lee and I have agreed to revitalise the Korea-Australia Young Political Leaders Exchange Program. This enables young people who will be future leaders to have travel and exchange between the two countries. It's a great way of building people to people links. These young persons' exchanges were agreed to in 2005 but the program has fallen into abeyance since and I'm very glad that we will be able to reinstate it with exchanges this year.
We also had a comprehensive discussion on our cooperation with Korea on regional and global affairs. We are of course, working together to consolidate the G20's role as the world's premier economic policy forum and President Lee personally, and the nation of South Korea, played a major role in that through hosting the G20 here at the end of last year.
I underlined Australia's support for the development agenda that Korea put on the G20's agenda and for taking this forward when the G20 meets in France later this year. We also agreed to work together and with other members of the East Asia Summit to further develop that forum and its political, economic and security agenda. Australia has been suggesting and we will continue to suggest that there are many ways of furthering practical cooperation through the East Asia Summit. Issues on which we can cooperate include disaster relief, non-proliferation, and maritime security. Australia is pursuing stronger links between the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defence Ministers + 8 meeting and we are also pressing for a second finance ministers meeting, to be held prior to the EAS meeting at the end of the year. We believe that such a finance ministers meeting could focus on economic resilience within our region. There is good continued cooperation in other fields including education, and President Lee himself was personally involved in pressing to have education as an area of cooperation for the East Asia summit and to have education ministers meet.
We, of course, discussed North Korea and I underlined Australia's support for South Korea against the background of North Korean provocations and aggression - the provocations and aggression that we saw during the course of last year. Can I conclude by saying I do want to thank President Lee, the Prime Minister, the officials who have worked with us in Korea for their wonderful hospitality and warmth towards us. It's been a very special time to be here, accompanied as I have been by Australian veterans and I'm very pleased about the wide ranging and productive talks I've had with President Lee today. I've very happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: I am from the Diplomat Magazine. Welcome to Korea. You visited Punmunjom yesterday. Can you tell me what your impression of Punmunjom visit? And second is, what is your view on re-election of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Thank you.
PM: Thank you. I did have the opportunity to travel to the De-Militarized Zone yesterday. It was personally a remarkable experience for me. I have never been anywhere like that before in my life, a unique experience for me. What it underlined to me though, is the sense of insecurity that the people of South Korea live with. It gave me a very clear personal experience of what it is like to know that you have a country along side you, a place alongside you that is periodically engaged in acts of aggression and provocation. Australia has been a strong supporter of South Korea and we've strongly condemned the acts of provocation and aggression we've seen from North Korea, including particularly the acts that we saw last year which caused the loss of the life of a number of Koreans, particularly the 46 sailors who were lost.
On the question of the US Secretary General I have on other visits from Australia had the opportunity to meet with the Secretary General and he's got a standing invite to come and visit Australia too.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, are there any obstacles in the way for the free trade deal? Like, how confident are you that it will be done by the end of the year?
PM: I'm very confident that we can get this done. It is in both our countries' interest. I believed it got to that stage where it did need a political expression of will to get it done, a leader level expression of will and both the President and I have indicated that we've got the political will to get this done. It is in the interests of both of our nations, it's in Australia's interests, it's strongly in the interests of our agricultural exporters and it's strongly in the interests of services exports so I'm very determined to get it done and I'm very pleased that we have set a timetable for the negotiations out of my meeting with President Lee today.
JOURNALIST: There have been a number of WikiLeaks cables that have been released, one that was suggesting that Manumdouh Habib was confessed under extreme duress, he was on the way to hijack a Qantas flight. What does the Government know about this information?
PM: Sabra, it is not going to surprise you when I say I don't comment on WikiLeaks, so I won't be deviating from the Government's policy about not commenting on WikiLeaks. As you would be aware following earlier decision making in Australia, the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security is having a review and investigation into a number of allegations made by Mr Habib, so those matters will be the subject of her report.
JOURNALIST: These allegations are not a surprise to you?
PM: Well I don't comment on WikiLeaks and I don't comment on intelligence matters and as a result I can't help you.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what were the nature of the discussions with the President regarding China, were there any discussions?
PM: Well we had a comprehensive discussion about regional affairs and regional engagement including the East Asia Summit. Of course, in the context of discussing our region, China's role in our region was discussed, China's role in regional affairs. Our focus on the future agenda for the East Asia Summit in particular, comprehending as it does, the countries, the right countries sitting round the table with the right mandate to look broadly at issues across the political, economic and security area.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister is that because if things get to the point where you are on, or the region is on, the brink of military issues or military intervention one way or the other that you have got a mechanism by which to deal with that?
PM: Kieran, I think that is a very substantial hypothetical, what we do as a government in terms of engagement in our region, of course we engage with countries, with our important partners on this trip. I'm engaged with important countries in our region, Japan, South Korea and China, important trading partners. Indeed if you add them all up, more than 50 per cent of our exports go to the three of them and also important partners in regional forums, like the East Asia Summit. to take one example. These are each important relationships in their own right. In the course of going to Japan, here in Korea we have talked across a wide range of issues - political issues, economic issues, security issues, clearly here in South Korea a focus is on the security of the Korean Peninsula. I'm looking forward to equally comprehensive discussions in China.
JOURNALIST: If you were to raise human rights issues in China, are you worried about offending the Chinese Government?
PM: I will raise human rights issues in China, in the way that Australia regular raises human rights issues with China. For example, a senior communist party official, Mr Jia, recently visited Australia. I had the opportunity to meet with him and in the course of having a broad ranging conversation, did raise the question of human rights. The approach is that we raise human rights as we raise a wide range of matters in our bilateral relationship and we've got an ongoing human rights dialogue.
JOURNALIST: What has the response been so far when you do raise human rights issues?
PM: We obviously do it raise and I did raise it with Mr Jia and I'd refer you to the transcript of the time the questions I answered afterwards. We do raise human rights, we raise it in the context of seeking China's assurance that the freedoms that are guaranteed for its people in its constitution are being observed and China is not taking a backwards step on human rights.
JOURNALIST: Given the recent crackdown, do you think that strategy is proving effective?
PM: Well we raise these questions and we raise them in the context of seeking an assurance that China is not taking a backwards step. Of course, I'm concerned about recent reports and that's one of the reasons that we do raise human rights but this is subject to regular dialogue between our two countries including through a purpose specific forum, a human rights dialogue forum.
JOURNALIST: What is your stance on human rights violations among North Koreans and the role of China?
PM: North Koreans? We condemn North Korea's acts of provocation and aggression towards South Korea and we also condemn the way in which the North Korean people continue to suffer under this repressive regime. I've said before in the context of this trip that you couldn't get a starker contrast between two nations. The democratic, prosperous South and the repressive North in which people struggle for the basics of human life, so we do very much condemn the way in which the people of North Korea have been treated by the repressive regime which holds them down both in a sense of lack of human rights and freedom, and in the sense of often lack of access to the basics of life.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how concerned are you that the protests are continuing in immigration detention centres in Australia (inaudible) have spread beyond Villawood and there are reports that (inaudible)
PM: Look, it's not my intention to comment in detail about domestic questions back home. The Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen and the acting Prime Minister will obviously deal with this in detail. My perspective is a very clear one. There is no reward in the system for people behaving badly in our detention centres, so poor conduct in our detention centres is not rewarded. So people engaging in any acts of violence or destruction thinking that this is going to get them an advantage in the processing of their claims, then they are wrong, it will not get them any such advantage. On the question of self-harm, we obviously don't want to see people hurting themselves. We have mental health professionals, who are there to assist people in immigration detention, but I am a supporter of mandatory detention, we must have a system in which we can properly assess people's claims. As a Government, we've committed to the treatment of women and children in circumstances where we can best provide for their needs including by caring for them in quite different community based circumstances and the government is working to implement that policy.
JOURNALIST: Was there a request for food aid from North Korea?
PM: An aid request, food aid? I understand. On the question of food aid for North Korea, we are considering the question of food aid. We have not taken a decision on the provision of food aid.
JOURNALIST: You seemed to get along quite well with President Lee this morning. He described the relationship with you and with Australia, as a special relationship. You also appeared to hold hands there at the start. How would you characterise the relationship?
PM: Look, I think it is a very personally warm relationship. I've had the opportunity to meet with President Lee and a number of a circumstances including here over a period of time during the G20 so I believe that our relationship has a degree of personal warmth to it. I think you saw that on display and I think there is a lot of personal warmth between our peoples as well, so it is not just a question of me and President Lee having a good friendship but I think with our veterans who have travelled here, you've probably seen with your own eyes over the last few days, exhibitions of the real fondness with which Australians view the Korean people and the return of that fondness and thanks for the role we played here during the Korean War, having played proudly some part in the creation of what is a wonderful and vibrant country and a great democracy. Thank you very much.