Transcript of Joint Press Conference by Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo, 16 June 2010, Canberra

Minister Smith: Thanks very much for turning up. Can I officially welcome Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo to Canberra and Australia. George is here in the course of this week as a guest of the Australian Government. He visits Canberra, Sydney and also Perth, so we're very pleased to host him.

It's not George's first visit to Australia. He was last here as Foreign Minister for the APEC meeting in 2007 but it's his first bilateral visit to Australia since 2005 and we're very pleased to see him here. George is very much a good friend of Australia and we appreciate that very much.

The relationship between Australia and Singapore is very strong. Australia and Singapore have a comprehensive bilateral relationship. It is not just trade and investment, it is also defence cooperation, it is also strategic discussions and engagement - not just bilaterally but also in our region through the ASEAN-related administrative arrangements, and also conversations at the multilateral level, in particular the United Nations.

The comprehensive nature of our relationship is reflected by the so called "3+3" meetings where Foreign Ministers, Defence Ministers and Trade Ministers meet every two years. And we had a very successful meeting in Singapore last year and we will meet in the "3+3" configuration in Australia next year.

The economic relationship between Australia and Singapore is very important and very strong. Singapore is Australia's largest trading partner from amongst the ASEAN members and our largest investment partner from amongst the ASEAN investors and our sixth largest trading partner overall.

In addition to that very strong trade and investment relationship, we have very significant people-to-people links. We have nearly 10,000 Singapore students in Australia and a high number of Australian tourists visiting Singapore each year and a high number of Singaporeans also visiting Australia each year.

We've had a very productive conversation this morning, a formal bilateral meeting. George met earlier with the Prime Minister but our discussion, as Foreign Ministers, traversed not just our bilateral relationship but also the things we do together in the region, touching upon APEC, touching upon the ASEAN-related regional arrangements and looking to the future of our region, touching upon the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the ASEAN economies combined.

We also touched upon Afghanistan where Singapore provides medical assistance and we value very much our relationship with Singapore in Oruzgan Province.

So, George, we're very pleased to see you here. I invite you to make some opening remarks and then we'll happily take your questions. So, George, welcome.

Minister Yeo: Thank you. Thank you, Stephen, always a pleasure to come back to Australia, among friends. It's a relationship which goes back to empire days. We'll always be grateful to Australia for all the help it gave us in the early years of our independence, to build up institutions.

I myself had Australians as consultants when I was in the armed forces. Until today the Australian Government affords the Singapore Armed Forces generous training facilities in the country.

Economically the relationship is going from strength to strength and we take some pleasure in the fact that last year we overtook the UK as one of your major trading partners. Singapore investments in the country are now quite significant and there are over 2,000 Australian companies based in Singapore.

I had the privilege of negotiating the Free Trade Agreement between Singapore and Australia some years ago and that has brought our economic relationship to a high level.

As Steve said, on all fronts the relationship is getting closer, denser, deeper and the re-emergence of China and India on the global stage has altered trade flows, altered developmental trends and Australia is more and more integrated into a larger Asian economy and Singapore benefits from that.

I remember when we concluded the Free Trade Agreement, I told Mark Vaile, my counterpart, half in jest but only half, I said this agreement makes us your northernmost territory in Asia and, to some extent, it is true, and it shows also in the way we share common perceptions about the evolving regional architecture.

I had a very good meeting with Prime Minister Rudd this morning and we discussed, among other things, the regional architecture. I thanked him for the contributions he has made towards ASEAN thinking on how to strengthen that regional architecture, taking into account the rise of China and India and the importance of embedding the US in the region for the long term.

We discussed different options, the EAS to be enlarged to include Russia and the US or a separate configuration, what we call ASEAN+8 but always, as the Prime Minister said, keeping ASEAN at the centre. And he put it very well, he said it's axiomatic, in other words, there's no need for further discussion about this and that, I think, expresses the common perception that Singapore and Australia, that ASEAN and Australia share in our view of the future. Thank you.

Minister Smith: Thanks very much, George. We're very happy to take questions on Singapore-Australia bilateral relations. If you've got questions in other areas, I'm happy to take those when we've concluded those.

Question: I've got a question for Mr Yeo. You were just speaking about options for regional integration, I was wondering what you think of the Prime Minister's ideas about a new Asia-Pacific community, those particular ideas that he's put forward. Is that something Singapore would support or would you prefer to stick primarily with an ASEAN-based regional integration?

Minister Yeo: I think our concerns, our preoccupations are the same, which is how to create, amidst changing economic trends in the region, how do we create a regional architecture which ensures that new stresses are accommodated, there is strategic balance, and we continue to enjoy peace and stability.

If we have peace and stability for another generation, the region will be transformed beyond recognition and the rest of the world with it.

I would say on the big issues, we are almost in complete agreement. There was some question whether in the original proposal ASEAN was central to it and we, ASEAN, were naturally worried about that. But that was quickly clarified and I think Australia's quite happy to leave ASEAN to discuss how that regional configuration should evolve. And the ASEAN Ministers will be meeting in Hanoi next month and this will be an important subject of discussion. I hope we can come to an early decision, but we'll see.

But I will say Prime Minister Rudd, in particular, and Australia generally have contributed much to the discussion in ASEAN about how that original architecture can be improved and strengthened.

Minister Smith: Can I just add to that. We're very pleased with the conversation that we've had today with Foreign Minister Yeo, both with the Prime Minister and my own discussion.

We're very much now, I think, at a stage where --- reflected by the recent ASEAN leaders communiqué from Hanoi --- very much at a stage where we want to see greater engagement by the United States and also Russia in our region through the ASEAN-related architecture.

And as George has said, it's now a question whether ASEAN itself determines whether the East Asia Summit should be expanded by two, or whether there's a new configuration ASEAN+8 and we're very happy to leave that to ASEAN to deliberate over in the first instance.

We've been very pleased with the way in which we've made a contribution to the question of regional architecture. The whole purpose of our contribution, the Prime Minister's contribution, was to make the point that with the rise of China, the rise of India, with economic and strategic, military and political influence moving to our part of the world, we had to get the regional architecture right for the future.

And one of George's and my colleagues said to me recently, when you look at the suggestions that had been made, former Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama's East Asia community, Australia's Asia-Pacific community, it was very much a case that the East Asia community equalled Asia-Pacific community, equals an expanded East Asia Summit, equals ASEAN+8.

So it's very much now, I think, a question as diplomats or Foreign Ministers would put it, a matter of modalities as to the way forward. But the important strategic point is getting the architecture right for our part of the world into the future with the rise of those significant influences. But also as George has put it, ensuring the ongoing presence of the United States in those arrangements.

Question: So, Mr Yeo, could I just clarify, is Singapore now a supporter of Australia's Asia-Pacific community idea?

Minister Yeo: Let me put it this way, we find elements in the APc proposal which are positive and which are helpful to the discussion within ASEAN as to how the regional architecture should be strengthened. And we thank Australia and we thank Prime Minister Rudd for this.

Question: Minister Smith, are you concerned that only 13 of the people convicted over the Bali bombings and the Australian Embassy attack are still incarcerated?

Minister Smith: We're exhausted on Australia and Singapore? Okay.

. . . . .