Thank you very much Prime Minister for those very generous words of welcome, Ministers in the Government of the Republic of Pakistan, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I can't share any thoughts about your country and my country without saying at the very beginning how touched all Australians were by the tragedy of the recent earthquake, a humanitarian disaster of enormous proportions. I will have an opportunity tomorrow of seeing some of the areas affected and visiting the Australian Defence Force medical team, which has been in one of the areas close to the epicentre of the earthquake for the past few days and it is our intention that it remain there for a period of at least three months. And I will also have the opportunity tomorrow to announce some additional direct assistance from the Government and the people of Australia to the people of Pakistan.
I've been told by both the Prime Minister and President Musharraf how this tragic (tape break) helped bring your country together. It is so often the case that a tragedy, a calamity, brings out the very best instincts of cooperation and goodwill across normal divides within a community. And tragedy though this has been, if one of its legacies is even more sense of national will and purpose that itself will be a very good thing.
This year has marked a change in the pace of the relationship between our two countries. As we've reminded each other and the President and I reminded each other today at lunch we do have a lot of history and culture and language and sport in common. But it's a relationship that we have perhaps rather than for granted on both sides. And this year special effort has been put into the relationship, the visit of President Musharraf to Australia was a great success and he left a very positive impression on those he met and I was very keen to reciprocate that visit and to come here and I'm very pleased to have been able to do so. And out of our discussions today there is a new commitment to the trade and commercial aspect of the relationship. May I say that the commitment of your Government, Prime Minister, to openness, transparency and freedom in investment and economic policies is one that I applaud. I said earlier this evening that in a globalised world there is no room for fence-sitters when it comes to whether or not you believe in openness and the free flow of capital and investment around the world. The countries that have embraced globalisation are the countries that have succeeded. The countries that have turned their back on globalisation or pretended that they can have a bit of globalisation and also a little bit of old fashioned central planning have been the countries that have not been so successful. And millions of people around the world have been lifted out of poverty through investment and economic liberalisation. And this is a message I hope was transmitted out of the recent APEC meeting to those charged with responsibility for trying to bring a successful conclusion to the Doha trade negotiations. Removing agriculture barriers for example would do more for some of the poorest countries in the world than a doubling or a trebling of foreign aid. Trade is better than aid. Aid is important, aid is necessary, aid is valuable, and aid can be targeted. I don't want to be heard to suggest that there isn't a significant role for it. But trade is infinitely more important and the contribution it can make to the relief of poverty is very, very much greater.
Can I take this opportunity of expressing my respect and admiration for the leadership of your President and your Government and indeed the people of this country in the fight against terrorism. You are at the very frontline, by reason of your history and also your geography you at the very frontline of the fight against terrorism. And the stance taken in the face of very considerable personal risk and all of those things associated with personal security by your President and by the members of your Government is something that I greatly admire and greatly respect. Let me say as a Christian that it's very important that we send a message in the name of all of the great religions of the world that terrorism is unacceptable. Terrorism is as unacceptable to Islam as it is to Christianity and Judaism and it is very important that all of us play a role in denouncing the way in which the terrorists seek to justify their deeds in the name of a great religion. It is something that is obscene and it is something that should be repudiated by all men and women of goodwill.
Nothing is more important, Mr Prime Minister, in the successful prosecution of the war against terrorism than the strength, the stability and the success of moderate Islamic countries such as your own. I think of Indonesia, our nearest neighbour, I think of Pakistan, the two most populous Islamic countries in the world. And their success, their stability, their strength will be to the detriment of terrorism and the detriment of those who seek to wrongly invoke the name of Islam to justify their evil. It's important that those countries that have Islamic minorities treat those minorities fairly and properly. Our own country has a very small Islamic population, 400,000 out of a population of 20 million. They are overwhelming of course loyal, committed Australians. They are entitled to have from their fellow Australians respect and understanding and inclusion in our way of life and they will receive it. Likewise, of course, all of us, including Islamic leaders, have a responsibility to advocate and argue against the evils of terrorism within our communities and where it might arise amongst our people.
Can I conclude, Mr Prime Minister, by saying how much I respect the way in which the seemingly, and I'm sure in the eyes of many Pakistanis and Indians, the intractable issue of Kashmir has been handled. I observed at the press conference this morning that I learnt in my study of constitutional law at Sydney University way back in the late 1950s about the circumstances that created the dispute over Kashmir. I think the way in which the leaders of both the countries have endeavoured to resolve this issue in recent times, the way in which the heat has been taken out it, a very difficult issue that evokes very, very strong passions is something that redounds to the credit of all of your countries, both of your countries and all of its leadership.
And on a lighter note, you suggested earlier Prime Minister that the team might be brought here this evening. Now that would have very, very disruptive and it may well have diverted their focus. That suggestion may not have come from an English source, did it? But can I say that the passion that your country has for the great game that I have a very great love for is something that is well understood in Australia. We have not forgotten, and never will, the wonderful Pakistani teams that have come to Australia. We don't forget your wonderful World Cup victory in Melbourne before some 90,000 people in 1992. We don't forget the wonderful sporting rivalries between our two countries and we look forward to those rivalries continuing for years into the future. It is indeed a wonderful common experience and one that we are very happy to be reminded on.
I thank you most warmly on behalf of my party.
[ends]