ADDRESS AT STATE DINNER PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, JAKARTA
Madam President, Mr Kiemas, Ministers, Mr Chairman, the Auditor General, the Chief of the Defence Force, the Governor of Jakarta, ladies and gentlemen.
Madam President, Janette and I are delighted to be with you and we appreciate very much the gracious hospitality that you have extended to both of us and to our travelling party. This is the fifth occasion on which I’ve had the privilege of visiting Indonesia as Prime Minister of Australia. My visit comes at a time when it is opportune to reaffirm the importance of the relationship between our two nations and our two societies. On this occasion for the first time I will also visit Yogyakarta giving myself an opportunity to understand better the important cultural epicentre which that city is to the life and to the experience of this country.
In our talks today Madam President, you and I have ranged over all aspects of our relationship and as you mentioned in your speech in such a gracious way our relationship does stretch back to the very beginning of the Republic of Indonesia. The formation of that Republic of course was an event greatly shaped by your late father who played such a dominant role in the independence movement. The relationship between our two countries has inevitably had its ups and downs and I believe that within both societies and within the leadership of the political communities in both nations there is a determination to build a closer, more realistic and more enduring relationship and association between Australia and Indonesia.
I am very conscious of the great economic challenges that your country faces. We were ready as a friend and neighbour to assist Indonesia when the Asian economic downturn in 1997 unfairly robbed this country of the fruits of a great deal of economic change and economic commitment, and we stand ready as a friend in the future to continue to work closely, recognising in a process of adjustment, which your country must undertake, does need to take account of social pressures and social realities. And just as in 1997 Australia was willing to argue Indonesia’s case for a slightly different pace of adjustment before the International Monetary Fund, it remains our view that the process of economic adjustment must take account necessarily of social realities, a point to which Madam President Your Excellency, you alluded in your remarks tonight.
We live in an environment that has been changed permanently by the tragic events of the 11th of September 2001. And the fight against international terrorism is something which must be joined by all nations of goodwill. You and I both attended that very important gathering of APEC leaders in Shanghai last October where nations representing vastly different experiences and different traditions united in their condemnation of terrorism.
I welcome very much the fact Madam President that you and I have had an opportunity today to initiate a discussion of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia in the fight against international terrorism. I also welcome very much Madam President the fact that over coming weeks important meetings involving both of our nations at a ministerial level will take place here in Indonesia. An important tripartite meeting between Australia, Indonesia and East Timor will take place here in Bali on the 25th of February followed by the regional conference on people smuggling jointly convened. Another demonstration of cooperation between our two societies jointly convened by Australia and Indonesia.
Both of these meetings are a demonstration of the practical commitment of our two governments and our two peoples towards tackling regional problems and bringing about regional solutions. The challenge of people smuggling is not a challenge that can be solved by Indonesia and Australia acting alone. We have interests in it and we have responsibilities in relation to it, but it is also something that challenges the nations of the entire region.
You spoke passionately Madam President of the unity of your nation. National unity is something very precious to any nation and any people and I want to make it very clear that Australia fully and unequivocally respects the integrity of the Republic of Indonesia and strongly supports the desire of your Government to maintain the national unity of your people. It is an immense challenge to be the President of a nation comprising over 200 million people, stretching across a vast archipelago of more than 3000 islands. I wish to say to you Madam President that we are your friend and your companion in the challenge of working through difficult regional problems. We should have a relationship which is built on several things. It should be built on mutual respect, it should be built on an understanding that we have both issues and attitudes and causes in common, but we also have some different traditions and different histories. And you get a good relationship between the two countries if those two things are always understood. It should be a relationship built on candor and a recognition that when difficulties arise there is a willingness to sit down and work our way through those difficulties.
But most importantly of all it is a relationship that must be built upon the links between our people. I said at our meeting this afternoon that if all that exists between two countries in terms of their relationship is a dialogue between the members of the government, it is a relationship of an empty shell. But if it is a relationship which is best expressed in the linkages between people it is a relationship that has much substance. And when we look back over the history of our association over the last fifty or more years it is a relationship which has been enriched by linkages between our peoples. Stretching back to the late 1940s young Indonesians in there thousands under the Colombo Plan and otherwise came to study in Australia. As I speak there are 17,000 or 18,000 Indonesians studying in Australia, more than from any other country I believe in the world and that is something that more than anything else in a way expresses the real future of the relationship between our two countries. Tens of thousands Australians come to Indonesia, and I have to say a great number of them go to a particular part of Indonesia - namely Bali - for their holidays. That also is an expression of the links between our two countries. But the most important thing is of course the people to people links and you were gracious enough to mention the contribution of people such as Tom Critchley to the early years of the association between our two countries and that continues through the present day.
And Madam President, can I say that I am really delighted to be a guest again in your country. We have had over the past few years some fluctuations in our association in political terms, but I believe deep down the links that exist between our two countries have continued unimpaired. For my part I will continue to work as leader of the government to build a relationship based on those considerations and those principles that I mentioned. I believe that there is much that Australia and Indonesia can do together, not only in our region but also as a demonstration to others around the world of the capacity of two societies with different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions, to come together and make common cause to serve come values that they have in common and goals that they seek to achieve together.
Again on behalf of myself and my wife I say to you Madam President, to you, to Kiemas, to all of your colleagues in your Government, thank you very much for the hospitality you have extended to me. Can I invite all of you to stand to honour a toast to the President of the Republic of Indonesia – Megawati Soekarnoputri – and to the friendship of the people of Australia and the people of Indonesia.