PARLIAMENTARY STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ON HIS VISIT TO THE ROK, THAILAND, PAKISTAN AND INDIA
THURSDAY, 2 MARCH 1989
Madam Speaker
I seek leave to report to the House on my recent visit,
between 29 January and 13 February, to the Republic of
Korea, Thailand, Pakistan and India.
Against the backdrop of the fundamental changes taking place
in global relationships, it was fitting that this visit
should take me to four countries that are not only important
in their own right and important to Australia but that are
also intimately involved in the three key points of tension
in our region: the Korean Peninsula, Cambodia and
Afghanistan. Each of the four leaders I met President Roh, Prime
Minister Chatichai, Prime Minister Bhutto and Prime Minister
Gandhi is working actively for a lessening of regional
tensions. All are leaders who have shown a preparedness to
take risks in the search for peace.
Each of these leaders, too, in different ways, is
discharging with skill and with vision the heavy
responsibility of democratic government.
India is the world's largest democracy; Thailand has
witnessed considerable consolidation of its democratic
processes over the past decade; in the Republic of Korea,
democratic processes are being actively developed; and
Pakistan after years of military rule, has happily now
returned to the democratic fold.
In these vital respects, these four leaders deserve, and I
believe receive, the respect and support of all Australians.
In particular, I found that listening to Prime Minister
Bhutto, her mother, her Ministers and other associates
recounting their stories of personal hardship and sacrifice
under the previous regime, was both an apt reminder of the
abuses which inevitably occur under military rule and an
inspiring lesson about the capacity of a determined people
to win again the dignity and liberty of democratic
government. My visit thus provided a timely opportunity to advance
Australia's interests on a wide range of important political
issues global, regional and bilateral.
Equally importantly, I saw this visit as an invaluable means
of assisting Australia's commercial interests.
Let me briefly explain why I see this as a significant
element of my overseas visits.
The Australian economy over the last six years has undergone
the historic, essential and overdue process of
reconstruction to equip it better for the economic
challenges of the world, and, not least, of our own dynamic
Asia-Pacific region.
It is through the greater enmeshment in the region of a
diversified, productive, efficient, competitive Australia
that the prosperity of individual Australians will be best
protected and enhanced.
So when, in my talks with government and business leaders
overseas, I have the opportunity of advancing specific
commercial projects which genuinely advance this process of
enmeshment, I do so. Indeed I consciously seek to identify
such opportunities. The pursuit of Australia's
international commercial interests is now a major foreign
policy objective. For the same reason, I am pleased to have
the active involvement in my talks of senior Australian
businessmen on this visit, in the ROK and India.
In each of the four countries I visited, I addressed high
level business forums the Korean Business Associations,
the Australia/ Thai Chamber of Commerce and the
Thai/ Australia Business Council, the Federation of Pakistan
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Indian-Australian
Joint Business Council and I presented the facts about the
immense two-way commercial opportunities offered by our
increasingly competitive Australian economy.
At the same time, I placed heavy emphasis in this visit, as
I have in previous visits, on protecting and advancing
Australia's multilateral trading interests.
In my address to the Korean Business Associations on 31
January, I proposed a Ministerial meeting of regional
countries to explore further the possibility of creating a
more formal intergovernmental vehicle of regional
cooperation. I said that I saw merit in the model provided,
in a different context, by the OECD.
I stressed, and do so again today, that my support for such
an institution of regional cooperation must not be
interpreted as suggesting, by code words, the creation of a
Pacific Trading Bloc.
Indeed, one of the principal tasks of any such institution
must be the strengthening of the GATT system.
I am pleased to inform honourable members that, to date, the
reaction of regional governments has been most encouraging.
President Roh endorsed the proposal while I was in Seoul.
Prime Minister Chatichai undertook to discuss the proposal
with his ASEAN colleagues, as will Australia separately. A
senior Australian official will be visiting regional
countries soon to discuss the matter in more detail.
It is my hope that a ministerial level meeting will be held
before the end of the year.
In My Bangkok business address on 3 February, I addressed
the need for a fair and workable outcome to the Uruguay
Round of multilateral trade negotiations an important goal
not only for the maintenance of our own and of global
economic growth but also, ultimately, for the continued
stability of international relations into the 1990s.
It was in Bangkok in 1983 that I launched my Government's
Regional Trade Initiative. It was therefore fitting that I
should choose Bangkok this time to make a major address on
the multilateral trading system.
I said that GATT is not dead but, if the current deadlock is
not broken, then we will have moved not to the end of GATT
but quite possibly to the beginning of the end.
Responsibility most heavily rests with the EC and the United
States to make appropriate adjustments to the positions they
so stubbornly stood by at Montreal.
In each of the four capitals visited, I also pursued the
need for effective solutions to environmental problems which
transcend national boundaries, such as the Greenhouse Effect
and the depletion of the ozone layer. I was able to outline
the technology and expertise which Australia possesses in
limiting the release of chlorofluorocarbons into the
atmosphere and the preparedness of Australia's Association
of Fluoro-Carbon Consumers and Manufactures to assist in
transferring technologies for recycling CFCs in commercial
use. Let me now report in turn on each of the countries I
visited. The Republic of Korea
My visit to the ROK took place some three months after
President Roh's visit to Australia, thus consolidating a
relationship that, in economic terms, is now among our most
important. With two-way trade valued at almost $ 3 billion
annually, the ROK in 1987-88 was Australia's seventh largest
trading partner.
I told President Roh that Australia welcomed his
constructive, open and far-sighted approach to developing
relations with the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea. I
was able to advise President Roh of the movement in
Australia's own relations with the DPRK, a development which
he encouraged when he visited Australia late last year. I
told the President, as we have told Pyongyang, that we are
prepared to continue our dialogue with the DPRK, but that
any improvement in relations will depend on an improved
atmosphere in the ROK/ DPRK relationship, the international
behaviour of the DPRK and the level of our confidence
regarding the scope for a constructive relationship.
on bilateral issues, President Roh and I agreed on the need
to proceed with the Joint Cultural Commission, the first
meeting of which should be held in Seoul by mid-year, and an
Australia-ROK Forum, to be held in Australia in
October/ November. Both these initiatives will contribute
valuably towards developing people-to-people contacts and
thus broaden and strengthen the foundations of the
relationship.
My visit provided an excellent opportunity to urge the ROK
to reform further its system of special taxes and import
regulations, which continues to restrict healthy and
non-discriminatory trade. I welcomed the recommendations of
the Presidential Commission on Economic Restructuring for
accelerating the process of liberalisation and restructuring
in the ROK. I invited members of the Commission to visit
Australia, and I am pleased to say, it is likely that this
invitation will be taken up.
My meeting with senior Economic Ministers, which was given
added stature with the presence of a number of Australian
business leaders, enabled me to discuss, at first hand, the
important issues of market access for Australian beef, iron
ore, coal, aluminium and other exports. I told Korean
Ministers that, while Australia welcomed the recent
indications of the progressive reopening of their beef
market, we were not happy with the current level of access
and had no option but to continue to pursue the issue
through the GATT in order to protect our legitimate trade
interests.
while in Seoul I inspected the magnificent facilities built
for the Games of the XXIV Olympiad. The challenge is great
but I am confident that Australia, through Melbourne, will
be able to put together equally impressive facilities and
make a very credible bid for the 1996 Games.
Thailand In contrast to the Republic of Korea, Thailand is not one of
Australia's largest trading partners. I strongly believe
that it should be. It is a country which is experiencing a
period of sustained growth, which could well see it join the
ranks of the Newly Industrialised Economies ( NIEs) over the
next decade. Thailand's energy needs are increasing by over
14 per cent per annum and this, combined with the rapid
expansion of its economy as a whole, offers Australia
enormous opportunities.
My discussions with Prime minister Chatichai therefore
focused on establishing a new framework for the
Australia/ Thai economic relationship. We agreed on the
desirability of an Economic Cooperation Agreement, a
Concessional Finance Agreement and a Memorandum of
Understanding on Energy Cooperation. I expect all three
Agreements to be finalised over the next twelve months. It
was also agreed that Double Taxation negotiations would be
renewed, the successful conclusion of which would provide an
important umbrella for Australian business to expand its
involvement in Thailand.
As a result of my discussions I am confident that we will
achieve our goal of a doubling of two-way trade over the
next three years to $ 1.3 billion. The target is ambitious,
but, given the 80 per cent increase since 1985, it is
certainly achievable.
Discussions with Thailand's senior Economic Ministers
highlighted the enormous potential for trade and investment
opportunities in that country and of Thailand's clear wish
to see more Australian involvement in its economic future.
Australian companies are well placed, for instance, to seek
multi-million dollar contracts in relation to Thailand's
plans for a hot-and cold-rolled steel mill, its Eastern
Seaboard development encompassing a coal-fired power station
and its proposed Data Processing Zone, which could offer a
unique opportunity for Australian joint venturers to get in
at the outset of high-tech development of the Thai economy.
Madam Speaker, as I said at the beginning of this report,
Cambodia was a key topic of discussion in Bangkok. with
developments in Sino-Soviet relations, Sino-Vietnam
relations and Thai-Vietnam relations, the external
environment for a settlement in Cambodia is better than at
any time in the recent past.
While the outcome of the recent meeting in Jakarta
highlights the difficulties which still need to be resolved,
it is essential that all parties make continued determined
efforts to advance the peace process. This is something to
which I know Prime Minister Chatichai is deeply committed.
It is a measure of Australia's standing in the region and of
the work of my Government since 1983 that Thailand wants
Australia to participate in any International Conference
that might develop from the current process.
I told Prime Minister Chatichai that Australia was prepared
to play an active and constructive role in an International
Conference, if that was the wish of the parties more
directly involved in the resolution of the conflict. As I
indicated in Bangkok, it is too early yet to be definite
about an Australian role in any International Control
Mechanism, as the detail of such a Mechanism is still
unknown. Honourable members will know that Prime minister Chatichai
sought Australian involvement in the design and construction
of a bridge across the Mekong River to link Thailand and
Laos. Not only because of its benefits for economic
development, but also because of its symbolic importance in
the Indochina peace process, and because of its key role in
Prime Minister Chatichai's ambition to change Indochina from
a war zone into a peace and trading zone, I agreed to the
undertaking, subject to the agreement of the Government of
Laos and to a further feasibility study confirming the cost
parameters. Laos has reacted positively to the suggestion
and our feasibility study will commence over the coming
months.
I am confident that the undertaking will contribute
positively to an easing of tensions in the region and, at
the same time, lift substantially Australia's profile in the
region as a whole. The cost of the undertaking will be met
from within the existing forward estimates of Australia's
Development Assistance Program. In other words, no new
allocation of monies is involved.
While in Thailand, I visited the Commonwealth War Graves
Cemetery near the River Kwai, where so many brave Australian
and Allied prisoners of war were forced to work, and in many
cases to die, in the most appalling circumstances. That
visit served as a reminder of the lasting debt succeeding
generations owe to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in
war. My visit to the Crop Substitution Project outside Chiang Mai
in Northern Thailand, which is sponsored by His Majesty the
King of Thailand, was especially appropriate, given the
vital cooperation between the Australian and Thai
Governments in combating the drug trade. I told Prime
Minister Chatichai, and I am sure this sentiment is shared
by all Honourable Members, that Australia will continue to
do everything it can to cooperate in the fight against those
parasites in the drug trade who seek to gain from the misery
of others.
Pakistan Madam Speaker, my visit to Pakistan was the first by an
Australian Prime Minister since 1975, when Gough Whitlam was
received by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose
daughter, Benazir Bhutto, is now Pakistan's newly elected
Prime Minister. Her courage, determination and leadership
in restoring democratic rule to Pakistan are truly
remarkable. I arrived in Islamabad the day that Soviet Foreign Minister
Shevardnadze departed. Afghanistan was therefore very much
on the minds of the Pakistani leadership. I told Ms Bhutto
that, in line with the Geneva Accord, Australia was
concerned to see the establishment of a viable Coalition
Government in Kabul encompassing the different political
elements, as that appeared to be the best way of minimising
the prospect of Afghanistan sliding into anarchy and
bloodshed. Pakistan's return to democratic rule has provided a firm
basis for the re-establishment of a substantive relationship
between our two countries. I announced a grant of 25,000
tonnes of wheat to help alleviate an expected food shortage
and the establishment of a $ 15 million three year
Development Assistance Program. A team of Australian
officials will be visiting Pakistan soon to discuss the
details of this program.
As part of the mutual effort to add substance to the
bilateral relationship, Prime Minister Bhutto and I agreed
that we should negotiate a Trade Agreement and should
encourage a group of senior Australian businessmen to visit
Pakistan this year. Australia is already a significant
exporter of coal, iron ore, wool and wheat to Pakistan, and
there is scope for significant expansion in areas associated
with Pakistan's infrastructure development such as power
stations, port facilities, pipelines, telecommunications and
the dairy and sugar industries.
India
Madam Speaker, my visit to India provided an opportunity to
give a significant boost to what should be one of
Australia's more important bilateral relationships. While
having a very solid foundation, Australia's relationship
with India has not yet fulfilled its very considerable
potential. When he visited here in October 1986, my good
friend Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and I pledged ourselves
to enhance the relationship. Since then, there have been
some significant advances, especially in the development of
private sector contacts through the establishment of the
Joint Business Council, whose third annual meeting I
addressed in New Delhi.
With two-way trade at only a little over $ 700 million, it is
obvious that there is much spare capacity in the
relationship and that there is a need for further efforts by
both sides to turn the relationship into something more
substantial. I am confident that my visit has gone a long
way towards that end. During my discussions with Prime
Minister Gandhi, we agreed to establish a Joint Ministerial
Commission and to make a determined effort to increase the
level of Ministerial visits between the two countries.
Details of the Joint Ministerial Commission are being
discussed between officials and it is my hope that the first
meeting will be held later this year.
While in New Delhi, Prime Minister Gandhi and I witnessed
the signing of four Memoranda of Understanding covering
Telecommunications, Railways, Monsoon Meteorology, and
Concessional Finance. These indicate the diversity of
opportunities that exist in our relationship. In
particular, the MOU on Concessional Finance will provide a
firm basis for Australian firms to pursue with confidence
large contract negotiations in India. Likewise, the
decision to make a renewed commitment to the negotiation of
a Double Taxation Agreement will give confidence to
Australian business to seek further involvement in India's
economic development.
Honourable Members will be aware of the negotiations which
have been in train for some time in connection with the
Piparwar Project, involving the development of a large scale
open cut coal mine. I am very pleased to report that these
negotiations are now in their final stages and are expected
to be concluded very soon. This project, worth more than
$ 200 million, will provide a significant boost to
Australia's profile in India and will demonstrate, in the
best possible way, our capacity to compete internationally
for large scale projects.
Prime Minister Gandhi welcomed my advice that Australia was
embarking on a significant enhancement of its Development
Cooperation Program in India a $ 35 million program over
three years beginning in 1990/ 91. Details of the program
are being followed-up in discussions between officials.
Matching Indian needs and priorities with Australian
expertise, this program will undoubtedly contribute
significantly to an enhancement of the overall bilateral
economic relationship.
As with the Mekong River Bridge and the assistance package I
announced in Islamabad, this expenditure will be within
existing forward estimates and will not involve expenditure
outside budget.
on international developments, my discussions with Prime
Minister Gandhi centred on broader global issues, the
Commonwealth and South Africa. I was especially pleased to
hear from Mr Gandhi the successful outcome of his recent
visit to Beijing. As I commented during our discussions, a
stable and improving relationship between China and India
will contribute significantly to a lowering of tensions with
the wider region.
In the context of Australia's global and regional
disarmament interests, perhaps the most significant question
I pursued during my visit was that relating to the threat of
nuclear proliferation in South Asia. In my discussions with
both Prime Minister Bhutto and Prime Minister Gandhi, I
welcomed their recent meeting and signing of an agreement
not to attack each other's nuclear facilities. I encouraged
them to continue the search for further confidence building
measures. I took every opportunity, in both my private talks and in my
public statements including most significantly when I
delivered the Third Indira Gandhi Memorial Lecture in New
Delhi on 10 February to stress the importance of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This is an issue on which
we have a different approach from both India and Pakistan,
and I saw no purpose to be served by down-playing or
minimising that difference. On the contrary, Australia will
always speak clearly and forcefully on this crucial issue.
The crux of my message was that it would be a great tragedy
if, at the very time that the superpowers are negotiating a
reduction in their arsenals, the spectre of nuclear
proliferation should be raised menacingly in our own region.
While in New Delhi, I also discussed with Mr Gandhi the
question of India's naval build-up. I told Mr Gandhi that
the issue had aroused some interest in Australia and that,
while the Australian Government did not see it as a threat,
the Government nonetheless would continue to monitor
developments and consult with India on them. I said that
Australia had a legitimate interest in any increase in power
projection capability in the region.
Mr Gandhi assured me that he was committed to a lowering of
tensions with Pakistan a sentiment mirrored in Islamabad
by Prime Minister Bhutto and that, consistent with this,
it was his wish to reduce defence expenditure as a
percentage of GNP. The development of a more constructive
relationship between India and Pakistan would, undoubtedly,
contribute significantly to a lowering of tensions in South
Asia and the wider region.
As a result of my talks in New Delhi and Islamabad, there
are to be regular bilateral disarmament talks at senior
officials level. It is my hope that the first round of such
talks will be held before the end of the year.
Madam Speaker, I also discussed in Islamabad and New Delhi
the question of Pakistan's re-entry into the Commonwealth.
Mr Gandhi confirmed that India would welcome Pakistan's
return and agreed with my suggestion that every effort
should be made to complete the process in time for Pakistan
to participate fully at the CHOGM in Kuala Lumpur. Since my
return to Canberra I have spoken by telephone to
Commonwealth Secretary-General Ramphal, who is equally keen
to see Pakistan's return. It is my sincere hope, and one
which I am sure is shared by all Honourable Members that,
come October, Prime Minister Bhutto will be able to take up
once again Pakistan's seat at Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meetings.
Madam Speaker, I would like to place on record my sincere
thanks for the very warm and generous hospitality shown to
me and my party in each of the four countries I visited. As
is obvious from this report, my visit to the ROK, Thailand,
Pakistan and India was undertaken to advance specific and
concrete Australian interests. Measured against that
yard-stick the visit was an undoubted success and one which
demonstrated Australia's continuing high standing in the
region.