Transcript of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Joint Press Conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard on 1 February 2005 at Istana

Mr Lee: "Well, Ladies and gentlemen, just a few words to say. I am very happy to welcome Prime Minister John Howard here to Singapore. We've met already in the few months that I've been Prime Minister four or five times. But Australia and Singapore have had many years of good relations, in fact nearly 40 years since independence. We have parallel regional and strategic outlooks. We have a lot of areas of cooperation together - economic, political, we work together in security, in defence cooperation. Australia has very generously given us training facilities for some of our SAF units, the Armed Forces. We have the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement which has helped to strengthen our ties and boost our trade enormously in the last few years. And of course Australia has very kindly and generously awarded the Honorary Companionship of The Order of Australia to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

"We had a good discussion with the Prime Minister. On bilateral matters, they're really not many problems to discuss. We talked about our assistance to the tsunami victims, the Prime Minister is visiting Aceh tomorrow. We talked about our air services because Minister for Transport, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, is in Australia now discussing with DPM John Anderson on the direct flights from Sydney to the United States, which we have been talking about for some time, to expand our civil aviation links not only between our two countries but beyond. We talked about how we can work together and develop this relationship further in future. The Prime Minister mentioned to me the case of Mr Nguyen Tuong Van, who's committed a capital offence on a drug charge here. And I informed him that we have received the petition for clemency from the Governor-General. We are waiting for the petition from the prisoner himself. He has been given another month to file. When we receive the petitions we will consider them in Cabinet, to decide on the advice to be given to the President on the petitions. We will take into account all the points which are raised there and consider them very seriously. Overall our relationship is in good shape."

Mr Howard: "Thank you very much Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. I would like to thank you very warmly for the welcome that's been extended to me. It's always a pleasure to talk to the Prime Minister of Singapore. The relationship between Australia and Singapore is close, it's practical, it's very mature and it's very open. And we can talk very directly about issues not only affecting bilateral relationship but also affecting our region. I took the opportunity of our meeting to congratulate the Prime Minister on his initiative in suggesting the convening of the Jakarta Conference chaired by the President of Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami disaster. It brought everybody together in a quiet dramatic and very effective way. And the response of Singapore to the disaster, the presence of almost 1,000 military personnel and military assets from Singapore working side-by-side with Australian and American and of course the Indonesian authorities and the aid workers from many countries is a wonderful example how this terrible disaster of the way in which our two communities and our two countries can work together. We have got a very close relationship and a very valued one not only but very importantly involving the defence communities of our two countries, our intelligence cooperation in the fight against terrorism in our region is extremely important. The Free Trade Agreement between our two countries has further reinforced the economic links. We both have a strong commitment to making progress in the Doha Round. We both believe that the future lies in more open and freer trade.

"We see trade as a valuable adjunct to assistance. Direct government assistance, in many ways, are more valuable because it provides the opportunities for communities in less well-developed countries to obtain market access and to lift their living standards. The Prime Minister and I talked a little bit about my experiences at Davos and that conference drove home to me again the absolute essentiality of making progress on further trade liberalisation. We both very warmly welcome the elections in Iraq. The turnout was a wonderful testament to the courage of the people in Iraq and reminded that no matter how fierce and gruesome and powerful the intimidation might be when people have a taste and opportunity in freedom, they will take hold of it. It is a universal reminder to us all of the power of democracy and freedom that it's a great pleasure to be in Singapore again and my wife and I are delighted to have the opportunity of visiting your country, Prime Minister."

Mr Lee: "Thank you."

Q: "Hi, Kimina Lyall from The Australian newspaper. Pleasure to have an opportunity to ask you a question Mr Lee, I am just wondering what is your personal feelings about the plight of Nguyen Tuong Van? What do you think his chances of success in his clemency are and how do you think about his ....."

Mr Lee: "Sorry, my personal feelings?"

Q: "Yes."

Mr Lee: "Well, it's a very serious offence. In Singapore we treat drug offences very, very seriously because our approach is that unless we do that, the number of lives which would be blighted and destroyed by people who are hooked on to drugs will be out of proportion to the benefit or whatever the drug dealer or the drug trafficker gets and so we have always taken a very firm line. It's the only way we can maintain Singapore as a drug-free, clean society. And we have to look at the cases individually when they come up, when the clemency appeals come. But that is our framework within which we deal with these problems."

Q: "William from the Straits Times. Mr Howard could you elaborate a bit on the air services talks that are going on in Australia now. And could you give us an update of the progress and if there are any obstacles preventing resolution of these talks? People are talking about domestic constituents like Qantas being an obstacle to the resolution?"

Mr Howard: "Well, I can't give you an update on the talks to be very honest. I haven't spoken at this stage. I haven't spoken to Mr Anderson. I do know however that the talks bring together two people who know each other well and understand this issue. We understand the Singaporean position and equally of course in matters of international air travel, the tradition because of the competitive character of the industry, it's always been that there's an element of vigorous bargaining, I suppose takes place and that has to be understood. But we bring goodwill to the discussions and I have great confidence in Mr Anderson's ability not only as Transport Minister who is currently acting Prime Minister to conduct those negotiations in a way that is fair and reasonable to Singapore Airlines but also takes account of legitimate Australian and Qantas interests."

Q: "A quick follow-up question, do you have an idea when negotiations will be concluded?"

Mr Howard: "No, I think the important thing is what comes out rather than putting any kind time imperative on them."

Q: "Prime Minister, Laurel Irving from Channel 10, on a more domestic front, the abortion issue again being raised in Australia. I am just wondering what you think of Ron Boswell's entry into the debate calling for ultrasounds to be carried out beforehand and whether or not you think Tony Abbot has a conflict of interest by offering his support to the Interfaith Group?"

Mr Howard: "Well, people have got a right to express a view on this issue I think we have to be careful we don't overreact. I mean what I have said and let me repeat it is that there is no intention on the part of the government to propose a change to the existing law. Now that hasn't altered, everybody understands that, everybody in the government understands that. And it's also my view that nobody in near term is going to bring forward a private member's bill on the issue. But if one were brought forward, people would be allowed an open vote. There are the principles that I stated a few weeks ago but we are a society where people are entitled to raise up and we can't have a situation where every time somebody actually dares to express a view, they jump upon from a great height and say well this is terrible, the issue is back on the agenda. Those sorts of issue in essence are always on the agenda. And people are entitled and there was a meeting of religious leaders apparently to talk about this issue. Well, people are entitled to do that. This is Australia, we are talking about and if people wanted to discuss the important social issue and that is an issue where people have strong views on both sides and that's something that I respect. But I think that we should all just sort of just calm down and I mean I say to the media with respect that every time that somebody actually said something about this issue, it shouldn't be regarded as extraordinary and people will go on talking about this issue for a long time into the future and I think we have got to get use to that. But I think we also, people should be very clear as to what the government's position is but I think some of the ideas that has been put forward about providing people with assistance in relation to choices, I think they are good, I think they look at the issue from a more practical, positive point of view rather than from an argumentative point of view which I don't think is necessarily very helpful."

Q: "Thank you, Jan Dahinten from Reuters. Minister Howard you mentioned the elections in Iraq. Do you now see say a window of opportunity to say start the withdrawal of troops from Iraq after the election?"

Mr Howard: "No, I don't think it be would wise to see the election and apparently larger than expected turnout as a reason to bring forward withdrawal of forces. If anything now is more than ever the time to provide reassurance to the people of Iraq and you provide reassurance by continuing the military presence, by reaffirming the importance of the people of Iraq taking control of their future and they have demonstrated by their turnout they want to own their future. I mean the great thing about the election in Iraq is that it is the people of Iraq saying we will own our future. Now that is terrific and we want to help. From an Australian point of view, our military presence is obviously a lot smaller than that of the United States and the United Kingdom. But from our point of view, this would be a bad time to immediately start talking about withdrawal. Now is the time to provide the reassurance. Now, there will come a time when withdrawal will be appropriate but certainly to talk about it now, in my view, might be counter-productive."

Q: "Derek Paulo: Mr Howard you talked about the importance of trade earlier, I just wanted to ask if you and Mr Lee had talked about possible free trade agreement between Australia and Asean? About what the chances are of that and what might....?"

Mr Howard: "Australia and Asean?"

Q: "Yes. That's right and about what the chances of that are and possible obstacles that still remain in that?"

Mr Howard: "Well, I think both the Prime Minister and I have a very pragmatic approach to trade issues. We can do a trade agreement with an individual country and it's a benefit to do so. You do. And I don't think there is any country in the world that has demonstrated that more effectively than has Singapore. As far as Asean is concerned, we had a meeting in Laos, last year to mark the 30th anniversary. That was a very valuable meeting and I think the most effective thing that we can do in relation to trade relations between Australia and the countries of Asean is to find where there are opportunities and we have free trade agreement with Singapore. We have a free trade agreement with Thailand. In the broader Asian context of course, we have a very strong trading relationship with Japan. Japan remains Australia's best customer. Very strong trading relationship with Korea. A burgeoning trade relationship with China and good trading relationships with Indonesia and the Philippines. So, I think it's in essence a mistake to benchmark progress on trade relations between Australia and the nations of Asia by looking at it from an Asean-Australian perspective. It's better to look at it from a Singapore-Australia perspective, a China-Australia perspective, a Japan-Australia perspective, Thailand-Australia perspective and when you aggregate all of that, you have right now a wonderful trading relationship."

Q: "Andrew Burrell from the Australian Financial Review. Mr Lee, Mr Howard will speak later at lunch on Australia's role in Asia. How much in your opinion on that...some people in the past have suggested that Australia perhaps has neglected its relations in Asia or perhaps that it is too close to the United States. How do you see that and do you for example believe Australia should be invited to future summits of Asean?"

Mr Lee: "Well, the role for Australia has to be decided by the Australians. The Prime Minister is here and he has a view. From our perspective and Southeast Asia, we would like to see closer links between Australia and Asia in general and Australia and Southeast Asia in particular, because we think the mutual benefits are there, the trade opportunities are there, the investments, the tourism. The linkages are natural in East Asia and if Australia is not part of this region and its links leapfrog this region and extent to America or Europe, Britain, to the exclusion of what's happening in Asia, it would be a pity, because there are so many opportunities, there is so much vibrancy, growth, dynamism and I think Australia does want to be part of this. So, from our point of view and Singapore and working within Asean too, I think the links are growing. The Summit meeting in Vientiane which Australia and New Zealand attended last December was one good sign that relations are getting closer and warming up and I hope that will continue. This is an inter-related world. Singapore knows it acutely as a small country that you are an island but only in a geographical sense because in every other way we are linked to the whole of the rest of the world. Australia is a lot bigger than Singapore but I think even Australia depends on links to the rest of the world and Asia, Southeast Asia and even little Singapore, I think is part of that story."

Mr Howard: "I agree with that. Thank you."

Mr Lee: "Thank you very much."

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