PRIME MINISTER LEE:
Well ladies and gentlemen, just a few words to say. I'm very happy to welcome Prime Minister John Howard here to Singapore. We've met, already in the few months that I've been Prime Minister, four or five times, but Australia and Singapore have had many years of good relations, in fact nearly 40 years since independence. We have parallel regional and strategic outlooks. We have a lot of areas of co-operation together, economic, political. We work together in security, in defence co-operation. Australia has very generously given us training facilities for some of our SAF units, the armed forces. We have the Singapore-Australian Free Trade Agreement which has helped to strengthen our ties and boost our trade enormously in the last few years. And, of course, Australia has very kindly and generously awarded the Honorary Companionship of the Order of Australia to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.
We had a good discussion with the Prime Minster. Our bilateral matters, there are really not many problems to discuss. We talked about assistance to the tsunami victims. The Prime Minister is visiting Aceh tomorrow. We talked about our air services because the Minister for Transport, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, is in Australia now discussing with DPM John Anderson on direct flights from Sydney to the United States, which we've been talking about for some time, to expand our civil aviation links, not only between our two countries but beyond, and we talked about how we can work together and develop this relationship further in future. And of course the Prime Minister mentioned to me the case of Mr Nguyen Tuong Van, who's committed a capital offence on a drug charge here, and I said to him that we have received the petition for clemency from the Governor-General. We are waiting for the petition from the prisoner himself, which I think he has been given another month to file, and when we've received the petitions and when we consider them in cabinet, to decide on the advice to be given to the president on the petitions, we will take into account all the points which are raised there and consider them very seriously. So overall our relationship is in good shape.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well thank you very much Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. I would like to thank you very warmly for the welcome that's been extended to me; it's always a pleasure to talk to the Prime Minister of Singapore.
The relationship between Australia and Singapore is close, it's practical, it's very mature, and it's very open and we can talk very directly about issues not only affecting the bi-lateral relationship but also affecting our region. I took the opportunity at our meeting, to congratulate the Prime Minister on his initiative in suggesting the convening of the Jakarta conference, chaired by the President of Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami disaster. It brought everybody together in a quite dramatic and very effective way. And the response of Singapore to the disaster, the presence of almost 1000 military personnel and military assets from Singapore, working side by side with Australian and American and of course the Indonesian authorities, and the aide workers from many countries is a wonderful example out of this terrible disaster, of the way in which our two communities and our two countries can work together.
We have got a very close relationship and a very valued one. Not only but very importantly involving the defence communities of our two countries, our intelligence cooperation, in the fight against terrorism in our region, is extremely important. The Free Trade agreement between our two countries has further reinforced the economic links. We both have a strong commitment to making progress in the Doha round. We both believe that the future lies in more open and freer trade. We see trade as a valuable adjunct to assistance, direct government assistance in many ways more valuable because it provides the opportunity for communities in less well developed countries to obtain market access and to lift their living standards. And the Prime Minister and I talked a little about my experiences at Davos, and that conference drove home to me again the absolute essentiality of making progress on further trade liberalisation.
We both very warmly welcome the elections in Iraq. The turn out was a wonderful testament to the character of the people of Iraq and a reminder that no matter how fierce and gruesome and powerful the intimidation might be when people have a taste and an opportunity of freedom, they will take hold of it and it's a universal reminder to us all, of the power of democracy and freedom. It's a great pleasure to be in Singapore again, and my wife and I are delighted to have the opportunity of visiting your country Prime Minister.
JOURNALIST:
Hi, Kimina Lyall from The Australian newspaper... opportunity to ask you a question Mr Lee. I'm just wondering what is your personal feelings about the plight of Nguyen Tuong Van. What do you think his chance of success in his clemency are, and how do you think about his...
PRIME MINISTER LEE:
My personal feelings?
JOURNALIST:
Yes.
PRIME MINISTER LEE:
Well it's a very serious offence. You know in Singapore we treat drug offences very, very seriously because our approach is that unless we do that the number of lives that should be blighted and destroyed by people who are hooked onto drugs will be out of proportion to the benefit of whatever the drug dealer or the drug trafficker gets. And so we have always taken a very firm line. It's the only way we can maintain Singapore as a drugs free, clean society. We have to look at the cases individually when they come up, when the clemency appeals come. But that is our framework within which we deal with the problems.
JOURNALIST:
(Inaudible) from the Strait Times. Just a question Mr Howard. Could you elaborate a bit on the air services talks. They are going on in Australian now, and could you give us an update of the progress and if there are any obstacles preventing resolution of these talks people are talking about - domestic constituents like Qantas being an obstacle to a resolution?
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Well I can't give you an update eon the talks to be very honest. I haven't spoken at this stage of my journey, I haven't spoken to Mr Anderson. I do know, however, that the talks bring together two people who know each other well, and understand this issue. We understand the Singaporean position and, equally of course, in matters of international air travel the tradition, because of the competitive character of the industry, has always been that there's an element of vigorous bargaining I suppose takes place, and that has to be understood, but we bring goodwill to the discussions and I have great confidence in Mr Anderson's ability, not only as Transport Minister, but as currently Acting Prime Minister, to conduct those negotiations in a way that is fair and reasonable to Singapore Airlines but also takes account of legitimate Australian and Qantas interests.
JOURNALIST:
A quick follow-up question. Do you have an idea when negotiations will be concluded...
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
No, I think the important thing is what comes out of them rather than putting any kind of time imperative on them.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister Laurel Irving from Channel Ten. On a more domestic front the abortion issue has again been raised in Australia, I'm just wondering what you think of Ron Boswell's entry into the debate, calling for ultrasounds to be carried out before hand, and whether or not you think Tony Abbott has a conflict of interest by offering his support to the interface group?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well people have got a right to express a view on this issue. I think we have to be careful we don't overreact. I mean what I have said and let me repeat it, is that there is no intention on the part of the Government to propose a change to the existing law. Now that hasn't altered, everybody understands that, everybody in the Government understands that and it's also my view that nobody in the near term is going to bring forward a private members bill on the issue, but if one were brought forward people would be allowed an open vote. Now they are the principles that I stated a few weeks ago but we are a society where people are entitled to raise something, we can't have a situation where every time somebody actually dares to express a view, they're jumped on from a great height-saying this is terrible, the issue is back on the agenda. Those sorts of issues in a sense are always on agenda and people are entitled, and there was meeting of religious leaders apparently to talk about this issue. Well people are entitled to do that, this is Australia we're talking about and if people want to discuss an important social issue and it is an issue where people hold strong views on both sides, and that's something that I respect but I think we should all just sort of calm down. I mean if I can say to the media with respect, that every time somebody actually says something about this issue, it shouldn't be regarded as extraordinary, and people will go on talking about this issue for a long time into the future and I think we have to get used to that. But I think we also, people should be very clear as to what the Governments position is and I think some of the ideas that have been put forward about providing people with assistance in relation to choices, I think they're good, I think they look at the issue from a more practical positive point of view, rather then from an argumentative point of view, which I don't think is necessarily very helpful.
JOURNALIST:
(in audible) Mr Howard, you mentioned the election in Iraq, do you now see a window of opportunity to start the withdrawal of troops from Iraq after the election?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't think it would be wise to see the election and the apparently larger then expected turn out as a reason to bring forward withdrawal of forces. If anything, now is more then ever the time to provide reassurance to the people of Iraq and you provide reassurance by continuing the military presence by reaffirming the importance of the people of Iraq taking control of their future. And they've demonstrated by their turn out, they want to own their future. I mean the great thing about the election in Iraq is that it's the people of Iraq saying, we will own our future, now that is terrific. But we want to help, I mean thinking of an Australian point of view and our military presence is obviously a lot smaller than that of the Untied States and the United Kingdom but from our point of view this would be a bad time to immediately start talking about withdrawal. Now is the time to provide the reassurance, now there will come a time when withdrawal will be appropriate but certainly to talk about it now would be in my view counterproductive.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, we talked about the importance of trade earlier. I just wanted to ask if you and Mr Lee had talked about possible Free Trade agreements in Australia and ASEAN about what the chances are of that and.....
PRIME MINISTER:
Australia and ASEAN?
JOURNALIST:
Yes that's right. What the chances of that are and possible obstacles that still remain in that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I think both the Prime Minister and I have a very pragmatic approach to trade issues. Where you can do a trade agreement with an individual country and it's a benefit to do so, you do. And I don't think there is any country in the world that has demonstrated that more affectively than has Singapore. As far as ASEAN is concerned, we had a meeting in Laos last year to mark the 30th Anniversary, that was a very valuable meeting. And I think the most affective thing that we can do in relation to trade relations between Australia and the countries of ASEAN, is to find where there are opportunities. And we have Free Trade Agreements with Singapore; we have a Free Trade Agreement with Thailand. In the broader Asian context of course, we have a very strong trading relationship with Japan, Japan remains Australia's best customer, very strong trading relationships with Korea, a burgeoning trade relationship with China, and good trading relationships with Indonesia and the Philippines. So I think it's in a sense a mistake to bench mark progress on trade relations between Australia and the nations of Asia by looking at it from an ASEAN Australian prospective. It's better to look at it from Singapore- Australia prospective, a China- Australia prospective, a Japan- Australia prospective, a Thailand- Australia prospective and when you aggregate all of that, you have right now a wonderful trading relationship.
JOURNALIST:
Andrew Burrell from the Australian Financial Review. Mr Lee, Mr Howard will speak later at a lunch on Australia's role in Asia, I'm interested in your opinion on that. Some people in the past have suggested that Australia perhaps has neglected its relations in Asia or that it's perhaps too close to the United States. How do you see that and do, you for example, believe Australia should be invited to future summits of ASEAN?
PRIME MINISTER LEE:
Well the role for Australia has to be decided by the Australians, I mean the Prime Minister is here and he has a view. From our prospective and South East Asia, we would like to see closer links between Australia and Asia in general, and Australia and South East Asia particular because we think that the mutual benefits are there. The trade opportunities are there, the investment, the tourism. The linkages are natural in East Asia and if Australia is not part of this region and its links (inaudible) throughout this region and extend to America or Europe, Britain to the exclusion of what's happening in Asia, it would be a pity because there are so many opportunities and so much vibrance, growth, dynamism, and I think Australia does want to be apart of this. So from our point of view and Singapore and working within ASEAN too, I think the links are growing, the summit meeting in Vientiane which Australia and New Zealand attended last December was a one good sign that the relations are getting closer and warming up and I hope that will continue. This is an inter-related work, Australia and Singapore knows it acutely as a small country, that you are an island but only in a geographical sense. Because in every other way we are linked to the whole of the rest of the world. Australia is a lot bigger then Singapore but I think even Australia depends on links to the rest of the world and Asia, South East Asia even little Singapore, I think is part of that story.
PRIME MINISTER:
I agree with that. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER LEE:
Thank you very much.
[ends]