











PRIME MINISTER



14 July 2003

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER  THE HON JOHN HOWARD MP  JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH  PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO,

MALACANANG PALACE, MANILA



Subjects: Relationship between Australia and the Philippines; terrorism; signing of  Memorandum of Understanding; coal; agriculture; Iraq; national sovereignty; Malcolm  Fraser’s comments;

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………….

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

Prime Minister, welcome to the Philippines. Australia and the Philippines are strategic  partners for peace, security and development in the Asia Pacific region. We have a strong  partnership with Australia in development and defence. We benefit in terms of official  development assistance, currently some $65 million, and mostly grants rather than loans.  A lot of this assistance goes to Mindanao. We also have assistance in the training for our  armed forces. One of our most successful foreign assistance to our military is the  program in Australia. Australia has provided training for some 100 personnel from our  armed forces since 1995.

We hold agreements to fight terrorism and transnational crime. Specifically just before  we came down here, our chairman of the National Police Commission, Secretary Jose  Lina, and the Australian Police Commissioner signed a Memorandum of Understanding  on cooperation to combat international terrorism. I am very grateful that on top of the  many kinds of assistance that Australia has been giving us, Prime Minister Howard just  said that they will be helping us with another $5 million worth of anti-terrorism and  police assistance. All these benefits are important in our common fight against terrorism.  The two-prong approach of Australian assistance to the Philippines amplifies the  integrated thrust of fighting poverty and fighting terrorism that has infused our

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relationship. Fighting poverty of course includes trading with each other and I am very  grateful to Prime Minister Howard for his very positive response to our proposals to  further open up the Australian market for our products, especially the agricultural  products coming from Mindanao.

I also am very happy to be able to tell our Australian friends that the Philippine National  Power Corporation has agreed to purchase coal from Australia on a competitive bidding  basis with an assured quota of 975,000 metric tonnes for 2003 and 2004. This is in line  with our diversification program for energy security. This will revive a trade that has  been dying down over the years between Australia and the Philippines. Indeed, all this  cooperation in official development assistance in economic matters, in security, all these  commonalities make our ties with Australia vital and urgent in terms of the interests of  our region and the world.

Once again Mr Prime Minister, welcome.

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Well thank you very much Madame President. I have appreciated very much the warm  welcome that you and your Ministers have extended to me and my party. I’m delighted  that we have seen the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on transnational  crime, terrorism and related matters. I would like to congratulate the Australian Federal  Police for their work, and to remark upon the very close cooperation between the  Australian Federal Police and the police forces of the Philippines, and to thank the  leadership of the police force here for their response.

The Australian Government will contribute an amount of $5 million for assistance in  counter-terrorist activities. It will amongst other things provide police training through  the Australian Federal Police for forensic and crime scene investigation, the provision of  document fraud laboratory facilities and a specialised document fraud computer package  and training, development of port security plans to meet international obligations, and  support for the development of links between law enforcement and border control  officials in the southern Philippines and their counterparts in neighbouring regions. All of  these measures are designed to build capacity, and both these measures and also the  Memorandum of Understanding reflect the strongest possible view held by the Australian  Government, and I know the Government of the Philippines and indeed governments of  other nations in the region, that close cooperation between our law enforcement agencies,  close cooperation between our intelligence services, lie at the heart of the ongoing fight  against terrorism.

The inter-agency cooperation has been quite remarkable over the past two years, both  between Australia and the Philippines, and only last night five additional Australian  Federal police officers arrived in the Philippines to assist in relation to the investigation  of the bomb outrage that occurred in Davao. The people present will be aware of the  ongoing cooperation between the Australian Federal Police and the Indonesian authorities  in the context of the Bali investigations. These announcements of course are part of a

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much broader relationship and my visit is an opportunity to reaffirm the very friendly ties  between our two countries. There are more than 100,000 Australians who owe their  heritage to the Philippines. They are an integral valued part of our community and the  people to people links of course are the strongest bonds that you can have between two  nations.

I welcome the decision in relation to the coal quota. That will be warmly applauded by  Australian coal companies, and I took the opportunity in the context of that of indicating  to the President that I would be encouraging an intensification of the interests by mining  companies in Australia, that we have great expertise in that area, and that is somewhere  where we can provide additional assistance. And I also indicated that the Australian  Government would respond positively to a request from the Filipino Government that we  look at ways of improving technical assistance in the area of agriculture. Australia and  the Philippines have some ongoing discussions, which I’m sure can be resolved in an  intelligent, cooperative way in relation to quarantine matters, but beyond that we have  common cause as members of the Cairns Group to secure a better deal through the World  Trade Organisation. And the activity of the Cairns Group over the weeks and months  ahead will be important to the outcome.

Finally can I say again on a personal level how pleased I am to be back in the Philippines.  I would like to record my appreciation for the forthright support that the President’s  government extended to the coalition of the willing in Iraq. There is a mistaken view that  there was no support in the region for the coalition of the willing. The reality is that  Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore, amongst others, were countries that in  different ways expressed very strong support, and the Philippines has offered to play a  very significant role in the reconstruction process which is taking place. And I also again,  in the Philippines capital, record the great appreciation that Australia felt for the  contribution that the government of the Philippines made to the Australian-led Interfet  force in East Timor. It was an early contribution and it made a very valuable impression  in terms of the regional character of that particular involvement.

I’m very happy to be here Madame President and I thank you most warmly for your  welcome.

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

I think that the Prime Minister and I can take a few questions for a few minutes.

JOURNALIST:

A question for you President Arroyo. I was wondering if you could tell us how concerned  you are that some countries are saying they do not regard national sovereignty as  absolute, but secondary to broader moral and security issues. And also, did you this  morning discuss with Mr Howard your country’s objections to Australia’s endorsement  of the policy of pre-emption?

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PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

No we didn’t discuss that this morning. Not at our level.

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

It didn’t come up.

JOURNALIST:

And on the question of national sovereignty? Some countries have said that national  sovereignty should come second to questions of morality and security. What do you think  of that?

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

I don’t think there is a… there needs to be a contradiction with national sovereignty on  the one hand, and morality and security on the other. We are all… most of are members  of the United Nations for instance and we are all very much concerned with security in  the United Nations, and that does not in any way reduce the sovereignty of the nation  members. On the matter of morality, most of our country share universal norms of  morality and we carry them out and we support one another in carrying them out.

JOURNALIST:

Prime Minister, how close are the established links between Filipino-based terror groups  and Jemaah Islamiyah, and secondly could you elaborate on your comments last night re  the seizure of that cache of explosives in Indonesia. What did you mean when you said it  was very big, and if they were commissioned, could they have been used to target  Australians?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Well I’m not going to speculate about people against whom those munitions may have  been used. Self-evidently, they could have been used against anybody, and that might  have included foreign visitors. It was a very important series of arrests. The people  involved I have been told by the Australian Federal Police were very senior indeed, very  influential, and it’s the belief of the Indonesian police and the Australian police that it  may well have averted a very serious incident or series of incidents. I don’t know that  operationally I want to go any further. I have a long-standing policy, as the Australian  media will know, of not getting into detail on operational matters. Quite clearly the  Federal Police Commissioner, who is with us today, may separately wish to talk to you -  that’s a matter entirely for him - about the operational side of it, but certainly the  information I have indicates that it was a major achievement. Can I say, without in any  way playing down the highly professional role of the Indonesian police force, Australian  agencies - not only the police, but also other agencies that come into the news from time

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to time - have also been very heavily involved, once again to their very great credit  because they are extremely professional outfits and they are very valuable to our country,  to all countries in the region, particularly at the present time.

JOURNALIST:

And the links between JI and Filipino groups?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Well look, I’m not going to conduct a seminar on all of these things. Clearly there are  patterns of behaviour that suggest links between many of these organizations. The  question of the intensity of it will vary according to the individuals and according to your  intelligence sources.

JOURNALIST:

Mr Howard, Australia’s third longest serving Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser  today has written that your government risks making Australia a completely subservient  ally by its slavish support of the Bush administration. What is your response to those  comments?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

I don’t agree with him.

JOURNALIST:

Good morning Madame President, Mr Prime Minister.  The Philippines and Australia are  important allies of the United States and as part of the region in the fight against terrorism  as well as the nuclear proliferation in North Korea.  Would you know Madame President  and Mr Prime Minister of your respective governments’ decision on the US  proposal of a  proliferation security initiative to seize suspected ships of carrying nuclear exports of  North Korea to the high seas.

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL ARROYO:

This morning Prime Minister Howard and I talked about the Korean issue quite  extensively and I shared with him my position on how we can … or what is the best way  to approach this issue.  With regard to the substance of the issue, it gets very important  course, that North Korea should de-nuclearise.  Well with regard to how, I reiterated what  I said of the nuclear conference in Tokyo which I delivered after consulting with the  President of South Korea.  What I said in Tokyo was that, number one the North Korea  issue should be approached multilaterally by the five countries that would have together  the strongest influence on North Korea, and these are China, the US, South Korea, Russia  and Japan.  And these five countries together in return for North Korea’s de-

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nuclearisation - which Prime Minister Howard said should be closely monitored for  compliance - these five countries together in return should be able to make an assurance  for North Korea’s security.  Not only security in safety matters or security in the classic  sense but also in economic security.  Because each time there was a nuclear crisis in  North Korea it was precipitated by an economic crisis.  Particularly an energy crisis.  But  we must emphasise that all this must be in return only for the de-nuclearisation of North  Korea which would be appropriately monitored but also for North Korea addressing the  reports of its human rights violations especially on the kidnapping of foreign nationals.

That is the Philippine position and as I conveyed to Prime Minister Howard.  And I also  proposed to him that at an appropriate future time Australia and the Philippines might  want to co-host a conference to facilitate these five very crucial countries with North  Korea’s decision making to come to a common position among themselves.

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Well can I say in answer to your question that I totally agree with the President that the  five countries that can exert, provided they act and speak together, the maximum  aggregation of pressure on North Korea are the five countries that the President  mentioned.  And we took part in the conference in Brisbane and out of that conference  we have agreed at this stage to participate in certain exercises.  I don’t think we should  run ahead of that at the present time.  It is always important on an issue as difficult, and  North Korea is difficult, none of us should kid ourselves that it’s not, it is important to  maintain a flexibility, you need a mixture of strong diplomacy but also a steady united  communication of what is the desired outcome, and the desired outcome is for North  Korea to renounce their nuclear ambitions and to behave in a manner consistent with that  renunciation, which of course is not the case after the agreement reached in 1994 which  lead to my comments to the President about the essential nature of any verification.  The  President did raise the idea of a joint initiative with Australia about co-hosting.  I  indicated that as a concept that we would have a positive view.  I also expressed the view  which I know she shares that we should not allow that to cut across the current multi-party discussion process which is going on.

JOURNALIST:

So what is your position here on what Philippines and Australia are doing?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

We both want the same outcome.

JOURNALIST:

I mean on what proliferation security should be.

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PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

The common position is that it should be a multilateral approach but it is five influential  countries from the point of view of North Korea. That is the common approach.

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

There’s nothing contradictory about those two things.

JOURNALIST:

Good morning Madam President, Good morning Mr Prime Minister.  You said a while  ago that you have agreed to the process [inaudible].  Does this mean Australia is ready to  lift the ban on certain agricultural products like mangoes and bananas?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

What we have agreed is that we are going to have a joint - forum I think is the expression  we use - to discuss the areas of difference.  We have some areas of difference in matters  such as quarantine and the Australian view is that our quarantine laws and procedures are  utterly based on science, and from time to time some countries have a different view and  that is perfectly legitimate, we have made some progress in certain areas and the view is  that if we can establish a mechanism that can bring all of these issues together we can get  better outcomes for everybody and that is what agreed.

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

In fact one of the movements forward is that inspections can now be done in Australia for  pineapples.  Now also the type of inspection is going to be the subject of additional talks  but the general message that I received from Prime Minister Howard is that these are not  a matter of barriers, trade barriers, but of  scientific precautions that where we come  together  we can work out what is mutually acceptable precautionary measures.

JOURNALIST:

There is [inaudible] a specific firm commitment to the lifting of any bans?

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

As I said, we have already moved forward because the inspection - I think it’s not really  a ban it is the kind of inspection the mode of inspection.  There has already been a  movement forward even before this because the inspection can already be done there but  the specific type of inspection, the kind of fumigant -  some technical issues, other things   that we will be moving on and the message that we are receiving from the Prime Minister  is that the whole idea is not to stop products from the Philippines but rather technical  issues that we will very likely find mutually acceptable formulas.

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JOURNALIST:

Good morning madam, good morning Prime Minister.  Has intelligence over Iraq change  the way allies process intelligence information.  Especially, when that information will be  used for such [inaudible] in another country? And there were reports from several leaders  of different countries for the President to run in 2004.  Would you join their….

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

I would ask the Prime Minister not to answer the question because that’s local politics.

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Oh, can’t I?  No, no I won’t. Local politics?  I head you say something about intelligence.   Thank you Madam.

JOURNALIST:

How about my first question?

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

Your first question - about the Iraqi intelligence?  Could you just repeat the first part of  it.  I have just lost the thread of it.

JOURNALIST:

How does the intelligence over Iraq change the way allies perceive intelligence  information from the US, especially when that information will be used to move against  another country….

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:

I understand.  Well you are obviously referring to the uranium out of Africa issue.  I  remain very strongly of the view that that whole thing has been blown out of all  proportion.  The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, has made it  clear in his statement over the weekend that there were six reasons that lay at the basis of  the American Intelligence Agency’s assessment that Iraq had reconstituted a nuclear  capacity and uranium out of Africa was not one of those six considerations.  I think that  alone puts into perspective and the idea that because of this issue the credibility of  American and British intelligence in relation to Iraq has been blown out of the water is an  idea I totally reject.  The intelligence assessments that came to me were strong and firm  and if I had my time over again I would not have behaved any differently in relation to  the direction of the Australian government and nor do I believe that any of my colleagues

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in relation to that.  And I would also like to make the point that the remarks that were  made by the President, well I will speak for my own remarks rather than anybody else’s -  were factually correct. It continues to be the case that British intelligence stand by that  assessment.  And that assessment is based on material other than the documents  subsequently declared by the International Atomic Energy Agency to have been a forgery  and the British position is being reiterated as recently as during the last 48 hours so I  think the whole thing has been blown out of all proportion and doesn’t in my judgment  undermine the credibility of British and American intelligence in relation to Iraq and by  extension in relation to other matters.  The final point that I would make is that  intelligence is by its character an imprecise science - a bit like economics and you have  to make judgments, you can never prove something beyond a reasonable doubt.  That has  always been the case, it always will be and I take the opportunity of saying that so far as  Australian intelligence agencies are concerned I retain enormous confidence in their  ability and their professionalism and also their willingness to communicate facts to the  government irrespective of what comprises those facts.

PRESIDENT MACAPAGAL-ARROYO:

Well, Australia and the Philippines share a common approach for the liberation of Iraq. I  would just like to say that the safety and security of more than a million Filipinos in  Manila has been well served by our decision to support the liberation of Iraq.  This has  also cut the links with the former Iraqi regime and terrorist networks in our country. I  have no regrets over my decision. It was the right thing to do.  Thank you very much and  we will see the Prime Minister off as he goes to have a meeting with the Australian  Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you Prime Minister.

(ends)

