Well thank you very much Mr Muto, to you and your colleagues, it';s very gracious of you to host this breakfast to give me an opportunity to express my gratitude for the continuing strong interest of parliamentarians from the Diet in the relationship between our two countries.
In the time that I have been Prime Minister of Australia, I have had many meetings with prime ministers of Japan. The meeting I had last night with Koizumi was different from all of the others because it was dominated by security and issues relating to international terrorism, and also in particular the threat posed by North Korea. That does not mean for a moment that the economic and trading relationship is any less important. It is just that the character of the relationship has expanded to include a very significant dialogue on security issues.
I understand full well Japan';s concern about North Korea and the very legitimate anger amongst the Japanese people regarding the abduction of your citizens by the North Koreans – an inexcusable act by that country. Mr Koizumi and I discussed the matter in detail last night and our approach is very similar. We both believe that all of the major countries in the region, or who have interests or influence in the region, must be part of a discussion to bring about a settlement.
A brief word on some bilateral matters. We are delighted to be able to participate in the Expo, and we are very pleased that the signing of the framework agreement will lay the foundation of even closer economic relations in the future. I noticed your comments on agriculture. We have a saying in English – we must agree to disagree. I think it is important that we understand the impact of heavily subsidised agriculture on the developing countries of the world, and in the interests of the longer-term maintenance of the multilateral world trading system there does need to be progress made on the agricultural front. And of course Australia has legitimate national interests on the issue as well, which I have pursued with your Prime Minister.
Finally, can I again say how happy I am to be back in Tokyo and how much I value the relationship, both at a personal level with your Prime Minister and also between our two peoples.
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