Canberra
PM: It's a very great pleasure for me to welcome the visit of President Thein Sein to Australia.
This is a historic visit; it is the first by of a head of state of Myanmar since 1974.
The President's visit reflects the remarkable progress of reform in Myanmar since civilian government was established in 2011.
Your Excellency, I would like to pay particular tribute today to the important role you have played in initiating and driving the reform process.
In doing so you have opened the door to trade and investment, to economic growth and greater prosperity for your people, and to a future in which a secure Myanmar takes its rightful place in our region.
Of course there is much work to do.
Myanmar's transition has only just begun and great transitions like this face many difficult challenges and require much hard work and commitment.
Australia will be a ready partner, encouraging further steps to entrench civilian government, to uphold the rights of all of Myanmar's people, to promote national reconciliation and peace among ethnic groups and to adhere to global non-proliferation norms.
We offer not just the arm of friendship and words of encouragement, we offer practical support.
In June last year, Senator Carr announced that Australia would lift its autonomous financial and travel sanctions.
We have moved to normalise our economic relationship.
We are establishing an Austrade presence to assist Australian companies to do business in Myanmar. And in coming days we will appoint the Trade Commissioner who will take up this task.
In January we signed a landmark agreement on development cooperation, the first such agreement that Myanmar has signed with a western country, and this agreement will see bilateral aid increase to $100 million a year by 2015, and that will improve the lives of your people.
For example, by helping 34,000 children access early childhood education, training more than 9,500 teachers and providing essential school supplies to more than 620,000 primary school students.
Today, I am delighted to announce an important new component of our aid program; a partnership for reform between our two countries.
A $20 million commitment to strengthen democratic institutions, deliver human rights training, improve economic governance and promote the rule of law.
This program will be tailored to help meet priorities identified by the Government of Myanmar.
Initial activities will focus on helping develop the mining sector in a way that is equitable and environmentally sustainable, and that maximises benefits for the people.
I'm also delighted that one of the early activities of the program will be support for the Myanmar Human Rights Commission, as well as human rights training for government agencies and civil society.
The Government's aim - our Government's aim - in moving step by step to normalise our relations with Myanmar, has been to recognise the genuine change that has occurred and to encourage the reform progress onwards.
Consistent with that philosophy, I'm also announcing today that the Minister for Defence and I have agreed to ease some of the restrictions on defence cooperation between our two nations.
The Australian Defence Force and the Department of Defence currently have only very limited engagement.
Australia's defence attaché to Myanmar is resident in Thailand and our restrictions only allow a small number of visits each year.
Australia wants to encourage the development of a modern professional defence force in Myanmar which continues to support democratisation and reform. We cannot do that with our current policy settings.
The Government has therefore decided that it will post a resident defence attaché to Myanmar to allow for greater engagement and dialogue with the Defence Force.
We will also lift a number of other restrictions on defence cooperation.
These steps will allow engagement with the Myanmar Defence Force on peacekeeping activities, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, as well as Track 2 activities held in Myanmar, and engagement in multilateral forums.
Restrictions on some bilateral activities will remain, including our arms embargo.
It will take time to move to a full normal defence relationship and we will do so carefully on a step by step basis. Today, we have taken the first vital step.
Your Excellency, I welcome the discussions we have held today and the progress we have made in mapping out the future direction of our increasingly important relationship.
You are a welcome and honoured guest and I invite to you make some remarks now.
PRESIDENT THEIN SEIN (THROUGH INTERPRETER): First of all I acknowledge the media people present here today.
I'm a visitor to Australia at the invitation of the Right Honourable Governor-General of Australia.
I am also proud to pay this visit as the first ever visitor as the Head of State of Myanmar to Australia after 1974.
I had the opportunity to discuss with Her Excellency the Prime Minister on multilateral occasions and discussions covered on the bilateral relation as well as the cooperation for the mutual benefit.
I took some time to exchange views with Her Excellency for further enhancing of bilateral cooperation and regional cooperation.
Today I would like to apprise you of the developments between two our countries and some issues about Myanmar.
My visit to Australia is one that I have looked forward to for a very long time.
This is because I know that Australia and Myanmar are destined to be good partners and more importantly that the people of Myanmar and Australia are destined to be good friends.
We are distant neighbours but part of the same region. We are smaller countries in the region of big powers and giant economies.
It is my sincere wish and aspiration that, like Australia, Myanmar will enjoy peace, democracy and prosperity.
We have much to learn from Australia and I hope and believe that Australia will be generous in sharing her knowledge and experiences with us.
I feel certain that our relations will now enter a new and special phase.
We have a long history of good relations. Even though we seem different in many ways, our histories are not independent of each other.
We were both under the same colonial rule in the 19th century and achieved independence in the 20th century.
Many Australian people have visited Myanmar, and Myanmar people have travelled to Australia for over 100 years.
Australian soldiers and airmen fought in Myanmar during World War II and I pay tribute to their bravery and sacrifice.
The graves of young Australian men lie in a cemetery just outside Yangon, and the remains of no fewer than 1,348 Australians have been buried in Thanbyuzayat to the south of country.
This is a connection that will always be with us.
Australia is now home to thousands of people born in Myanmar or of Myanmar descent. I hope that many who are from Myanmar who wish to return may now consider returning to help build our nation at this critical juncture.
But I also hope that those Australians who have a specific connection to Myanmar, and I know there are many who are now second or third generation young Australians, that they do help to forge a stronger connection between our two countries, visit Myanmar in the future, and contribute to better understanding and economic and cultural ties.
Our ties after independence were also strong. We are grateful for support and assistance from Australia.
I know that for many years, the Australian Government and the Australian people were concerned over the situation of human rights in Myanmar. I'm grateful for that concern.
I'm here in part to explain the changes that have been taking place and ask for your country's kind support and assistance in making our transitions to peace, democracy and prosperity a success.
I hope you will appreciate that what we are undertaking has no parallel in modern times.
This is not just a single transition but three together.
It's a transition from military rule to our democratic rules.
From 60 years of armed conflict to peace.
And from centrally controlled and isolated economy to one that can end poverty and create real opportunities for all our people.
I also note that Australia's working to assist our new efforts for urban conservation and urban planning, and that Australia has assisted New Yangon Heritage Trust. For this we are sincerely grateful.
And I am also sure that my stay in Canberra and Sydney will give me an opportunity to understand better the potential of cities in our conservation efforts.
I believe one area in which Australia may provide special help and expertise is mining and more generally in the natural resources component of our economy.
Like Australia, we are a country rich in natural resources.
We have to make sure that the extraction and export of these resources is done properly, in a way that does not damage the environment and that benefits the vast majority of people.
We want to maintain efficient and effective management of our mining sector. We want it to be an engine for growth and we look forward to you for kind assistance, training and knowledge.
We are greatly thankful for all Australia has done and is continuing to do to help Myanmar people in health care, education and livelihoods.
I know Australia has provided tens of millions of dollars in aid bilaterally as well as through multi-donor organisations such as LIFT, Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Funds, and the 3D funds.
I hope that this assistance will remain but may also be expanded to other areas - new areas - that you will keep helping us to develop our economy.
I would like to call upon the Australian supporters in our more general request to normalise our relations internationally.
At the UN, we believe that we should no longer be the focus of country-specific resolution.
I would like to seek your continued support in removing numerous resolutions in the UN General Assembly in 2013.
And I thank you all.
PM: Thank you Your Excellency. We'll now take some questions from the media. We'll start with a question from the visiting media if there is one. Yes.
JOURNALIST: Good morning Your Excellency. I'm very much honoured to interview you like this. Thank you for giving me a great chance like this. Being a lady, I'm very proud of you for you are the first lady prime minister in Australian history.
Your Excellency, Australia is in Asia-Pacific region, actually you are our neighbour.
When we think about Australia, we appreciate the way in which Australian Government think of our country.
We are very grateful for you have contributed to our country and you have lit up this at home.
We know that Australia have super education, excellent health care, world-class agriculture and many others, so we know that Australia is a country for to us enhance the bilateral cooperation.
How do you hope to progress forward now that Myanmar have opened up a new chapter and how would Australia have Myanmar adopt regional progress?
PM: Thank you very much for your question. And thank you for noting that I am the first woman to serve as Australian prime minister.
The President and I were talking about the performance of women ambassadors when we had our discussion, so it's been a bit of a theme of the day.
We do want to work in a good and deep partnership with Myanmar during this period of change.
As I outlined in my opening remarks, we are deepening our aid relationship because we know that you are still lifting people out of poverty.
We are strengthening our trade and economic development relationship because to sustain progress you need to see jobs and you need to see an equitable distribution of wealth and opportunity through your society.
We are continuing to work together to see progress on human rights, including the treatment of minority groups. And we're continuing the dialogue around national reconciliation in your nation.
There is much to do and many pressing challenges. But we have been very admiring of the progress to date.
And given the remarkable amount of progress that has occurred to date, we are optimistic about further progress, which is why for example today I am announcing a change in our view about defence discussions between our two countries; that is being done to note the progress that has been made so far.
Thank you very much. We'll take one from the Australian media.
JOURNALIST: Just on your media reforms, is it still the government's position that it's all or nothing on the passage of the bills or are you now prepared to negotiate certain elements?
And are you yourself prepared to get involved in those negotiations with the independents?
PM: The Government's got its proposals before the parliament. What we've said is we don't want the intent of our reforms to be distorted in any way.
Of course, we've got a parliamentary committee process in train now.
And we will see what, if anything, arises from the parliamentary committee.
So our intention remains to pursue the legislation that is before the parliament now.
If there are sensible suggestions consistent with our reform intentions that come out of the parliamentary committee process then certainly we will listen to those.
But we're not in the business of cross trading or horse trading on these bills.
JOURNALIST: Good morning Excellency. I'm the chief editor of a news journal from Myanmar. I'd like to ask three questions to the Honourable Prime Minister.
The first one is Australian investment in our country, because as you all know in our country it's the best time for the good opportunity to invest in our country, because we start new foreign investment law with the market-oriented economy.
And then our country is quite stable, and then we have a lot of raw material and a lot of natural resources in our country, and you can get cheap labour, they can do hard work, they can understand English.
And then they should market our population is around about 60 million, and two neighbouring countries, India and China, more than 1 billion.
That's why I like to know which sector, which area and which kind of investment, Australian investment in our country in future? That's my first question. Can I continue?
PM: Yes, sure.
My second question is our Government is doing the total peace process in whole country within our country starting from negotiation and then together to the peace.
That's why the one thing that is important, it's the rehabilitation for the ethnic community.
That's why to increase socio-economic development and to get rehabilitation, we need some kind of help from donor countries.
But we can try as much as we can but we need, that's why I think the rehabilitation program and then socio-economic government program can cooperate for our country.
That question is military training. I think our country got military training program in 1950 and 1960, so in the future, is there any military training program for our military officials in your country? I would like to know. Thank you.
PM: Thank you. On the first question, with us changing our sanctions regime because of the progress that has been made, so the door has well and truly been open to Australian investment, trade and exchange with Myanmar.
And the fact that I am announcing that we will have an Austrade person stationed there is all about facilitating business links.
I think that there are opportunities across the board for cooperation. But if I was going to single out one area I would identify the same area as you, and that is the area of mining.
Australia is a great mining nation and consequently I think we've got a comparative advantage when it comes to working with you and assisting you as mining potentials open up to the world.
The President and I had a discussion about this in our conversation and I would say that that is a particular area of focus for us and for businesses, great mining businesses that do work in our own country.
On the question of military training, what we've done today is taken a first step on defence relations between our two countries.
It is not fully normalising defence relationships, but it is opening the door and it is a vital first step so we can then consider further proposals in the future, including proposals about training.
The fact that we will have a defence attaché there means that it is much easier to have that dialogue than it has been with someone periodically, indeed quite intermittently, coming in from outside Myanmar.
So we are not fully normalising defence relationships today but we are taking an important first step.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard, if you aren't able to get your media reforms through in the next few days will you take them as a platform to the election?
PM: We'll deal with this week a step at a time. So our focus is on securing passage of the reform bills that are before the parliament.
After the week has been through, then we'll make further statements depending on what has happened in the parliament.
We did have an agreement for two questions a side, and thank you very much, the President has another commitment.
Thank you.