

Inquiries:  (02) 6277 7500 1

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

HON ALEXANDER DOWNER, MP

TRANSCRIPTION: PROOF COPY E & OE

DATE:   11 October 2006

TITLE:  Doorstop, AIIA Conference Centre, Canberra



REPORTER: (Inaudible)?

ALEXANDER DOWNER: We have no confirmation of that at the moment. The embassy in  Jakarta is investigating. So we don't really have anything to add to the media reports.

REPORTER: Mr Downer, should Australia re-think its decision - or its consideration - to sell  uranium to  India  given  the  developments  in  North  Korea  and  given  what  Russell  Trood  said   yesterday?

MR DOWNER:  Well,  we've  made  no  decision  to  sell  uranium to  India  and  it's  not  really  an   issue we've given consideration to in the last few weeks or even months. We have no plans to  reconsider the issue at all.



REPORTER: But would it weaken the non-proliferation regime if Australia did sell uranium?

MR DOWNER: Well, I think the problem with the non-proliferation regime is this - there are a  tiny number of countries, particularly here we're talking about North Korea and Iran, who have  demonstrated the challenge that the regime faces. First is with North Korea - they walked out  of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Now whether they should have been able to or not, that  was the way it happened. So what do you do in a circumstance where a country says it won't  apply the non-proliferation regime at all? Secondly, in relation to Iran, Iran has been found by  the International Atomic Energy Agency not to be fully compliant with the requirements of the  IAE, which is part of the non-proliferation regime. That begs another question - what do you  do in the case where countries sign up to all the appropriate instruments, but don't fulfill their

obligations under those instruments? And that's why the non-proliferation regime has had to be  reinforced. I think what some of the commentators are missing is the way the non-proliferation  regime  has  been  reinforced  with  the  Proliferation  Security  Initiative,  which  now  many   countries have signed up to, which is a method not only of saying, "We want countries to sign

international  norms  of  non-proliferation,  but  we're  putting  in  place  measures  to  enforce  the   application  of  those  norms".  And  the  Proliferation  Security  Initiative  doesn't  get  much   publicity, but is an enormously important vehicle for reinforcing the non-proliferation regime.

REPORTER: Does the North Korean test alter the whole question or make more controversial  the question of selling uranium to India?

MR DOWNER: What's it got to do with India? North Korea and India have nothing to do with



Inquiries:  (02) 6277 7500 2

each other.

REPORTER: I mean on the subject of uranium?

MR DOWNER: We sell uranium all over the place.

REPORTER: To people who have signed the treaty...

MR  DOWNER:  The  fact  that  North  Korea  has  conducted  nuclear  tests  I  can  assure  you  has   zero  to  do  with  India.  India  has  not  been  complicit  in  assisting  the  development  of  North   Korea's nuclear industry. I think there have been links in the past with the AQ Khan network,  but you can rest assured the AQ Khan network never had any sympathy for India.



I make one other point about the North Korean test - we are very concerned that North Korea  may very soon attempt another nuclear test and we are particularly concerned about that this  morning and we're very focused on that issue.



REPORTER: What is our embassy doing to try and verify the Helicopter crash reports?

MR DOWNER: I haven't got all the details, but they are obviously talking with the Indonesian  authorities and the Indonesian authorities will be - I'm not sure how they are doing this - but  deploying people to get to the heart of what's happening.

REPORTER: But in the current circumstances, would the Government be able to garner public  support if it did want to change the policy, do you think?

MR  DOWNER:  We  are  not  about  to  change  the  policy  so  we're  not  endeavoring  to  garner   public support.

REPORTER: Recently you were quite supportive of what the US was doing with India and it  seemed to be a suggestion that Australia may look at doing something similar?

MR DOWNER: It's not something that lends itself to a one-liner. It's always with things that  don't  lend  themselves  to  one-liners  that  take  a  bit  of  time  to  explain.  What  the  US  have   negotiated with India is an arrangement whereby most, but not all, of India's nuclear facilities  would come under IAEA inspections under that inspection regime. It has to be said that it's a  good  thing  to  have  most  of  their  nuclear  facilities  inspected,  but  we  would  like  to  see  all  of   them subject to the IAEA inspection regime. The question you have to ask yourself - is it better  to  have  some,  most,  if  you  like,  subject  to  that  regime  or  none  subject  to  that  regime?  And   given  that  choice,  it's  better  to  have  most  of  them  subject  to  that  regime  than  none  of  them   subject to that regime. At least there are inspections. But to extrapolate from that that we are  about to change our policy on uranium exports to India is not right. We are not about to change  our policy. We haven't considered or even discussed this issue for months. If I may say so, it is  childish for some people to be suggesting that the North Korean tests have got something to do  with India as one of the Greens did. I heard it on the radio. One of the Greens said that there  was a link between the North Korean nuclear tests and exporting uranium to...



Inquiries:  (02) 6277 7500 3

REPORTER:  Can  you  comment  on  what  Russell  Trood  has  said  about  the  non-proliferation   regime?

MR DOWNER: I think obviously what North Korea has done in terms of the implications for  non-proliferation  is  worrying.  But  North  Korea  had  stepped  out  of  the  non-proliferation   regime.  The  test  is  whether  the  non-proliferation  regime  is  going  to  be  able  to  hold  those   countries  that  are  part  of  it  in  place. I think the answer to that is it will. I take, for example,  important as I think Russell Trood is - and he's one of my colleagues - I will tell you somebody  who is even more important in this debate and that's PM Abe of Japan who, yesterday, made it  clear that Japan is not going to go down the nuclear path. That's an important point.



REPORTER:  Russell  Trood  said  as  well  that  if  Australia  sold  uranium  to  India  that  would   further undermine the non-proliferation regime. Can you comment on that?

MR DOWNER: We are not planning to sell uranium to India.

REPORTER: Mr Downer, you said you have concerns that North Korea will have another test,  do another test. Have you got reports?

MR DOWNER: We have - I will leave it as I want to put it - that we have very real concerns  that they may conduct another nuclear test and they may do so fairly soon.

REPORTER: By devoting so many resources to Iraq, has Australia taken the eye off the ball in  its own neighbourhood leaving North Korea to just blow up?

MR DOWNER: So you think according to this argument we should send 400 troops we have  in the Di Qar Province of Iraq to North Korea to stop North Korea testing nuclear weapons? I  think, as I put it to you that way, you can see how totally batty that proposition is. Let's just get  real. Australia is a significant country. We actually, in the Government - and I don't speak for  the Opposition here because I'm not sure it's true of them - we can do more than one thing at a  time.

Thank you.

ENDS



