Interview with the Hon Stephen Smith MP by Joana Cunha, Folha de Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Hon Stephen Smith MP
AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SUBJECT: Australia-Brazil relations.
MS CUNHA: Hi, Mr Smith. How are you?
MR SMITH: I’m well.Yourself?
MS CUNHA: Well hi, I’m fine. Well is this your first time in Brazil?
MR SMITH: It is. It’s my first visit to Brazil. It’s my first visit as Foreign Minister and it’s the first Foreign Ministerial visit to Brazil since 2006 - and it’s essentially the reciprocal visit to Foreign Minister Amorim’s visit to Australia last year.
MS CUNHA: Sorry?
MR SMITH: It’s the return visit. Foreign Minister Amorim came to Australia last year so we agreed then that I would come to Brazil this year so it’s the reciprocal or the return visit from Foreign Minister Amorim’s visit to Australia last year.
MS CUNHA: Ok, and what’s the purpose of the visit?
MR SMITH: Well the purpose of the visit is that Australia very much wants to enhance its relationship and its engagement with Brazil. We’ve had a longstanding and friendly relationship with Brazil, we’ve had diplomatic representation and diplomatic recognition for over 60 years but when the current Australian government came to office 18 months ago, we very quickly came to the conclusion that the people-to-people and the trade and investment contacts between Australia and Brazil had gotten ahead of, had gotten in advance of the Government-to-Government relationship and we needed to address that because we think there is a lot more potential in the relationship between Australia and Brazil. So the exchange of visits between the two Foreign Ministers is the start of what Australia would want to see as more high-level ministerial contact and enhancing the relationship between Australia and Brazil.
MS CUNHA: Ok. Well I’m interested in the crisis. Just in terms of the commercial relationship between Brazil and Australia, can it be increased now?
MR SMITH: We share that view and we’ve actually seen some quite significant growth in our bilateral trade in the last couple of years. In 2008 there was over a 50 per cent growth in our bilateral trade over the previous year 2007 and Brazil is Australia’s largest trading partner in South America but we think there’s a lot of potential to increase and enhance that trade and investment in minerals resources, in agriculture and agribusiness and also in science and technology, so part of the purpose of my visit is to look at those areas where we think enhanced investment and trade relations can occur but we think there’s a lot of complimentarity between our economies, particularly in those areas that I’ve mentioned, minerals resources, agriculture and agribusiness.
MS CUNHA: Can you repeat the numbers?
MR SMITH: In 2008 we had a more than 50 per cent increase in the bilateral trade between Australia and Brazil over 2007’s and Brazil is Australia’s largest trading partner in South America.
MS CUNHA: Ok. What about discussions about the climate? The last event to discuss the climate happened last year in Poland in the middle of the crisis, and the next one is going to happen this year in Denmark after the crisis, or at least after the worst part of the crisis, what do you expect?
MR SMITH: Well both in terms of the GFC and also in climate change, I think they’re two very good examples of Australia and Brazil working closely. Australia very much appreciates Brazil’s expanding role as a global player and one of the first things the Australian Government did when it came to office at the end of 2007, was to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and we’ve been working very hard. Since then the Bali conference and now in the build up to Copenhagen, and so we’ve been working closely with Brazil on climate change matters but also in the aftermath of the GFC, the G20 has emerged as a key international institution and PM Rudd and President Lula have been working very closely in the G20 and in the run-up to the Pittsburgh meeting, we think that in addition to continuing to address some of the GF issues, whether it’s IMF reform, that also the G20 meeting in Pittsburg can be part of the momentum building up to Copenhagen. It’s very important in Australia’s view that we get a good outcome out of Copenhagen in so far as climate change is concerned. But both in climate change and in the G20, Australia’s attitude is that Brazil’s actions on both fronts reflect the fact that Brazil’s an emerging, not just a regional power, but emerging as a global player and part of enhancing Australia’s bilateral relations with Brazil is not just the growth in trade and investment or the growth in people to people contacts or the large number of Brazilian students we have in Australia, which is now about 16,000, but it’s also working closely with Brazil on these major regional and international and global issues and we’ve been working very closely on the G20 and that’s been part of the very close contact between PM Rudd and President Lula.
MS CUNHA: Ok. And do you have anything to add?
MR SMITH: Well just as a general proposition, one of the things that the Australian Government wants to do is to enhance our engagement with South America generally. Australia’s a continent and a country of just over 20 million people and we’ve become a developed and a prosperous country by being a great trading nation and we think there’s lots of potential for our enhanced engagement, not just with Brazil, but with South America generally and one of the foreign policy priorities the Australian Government has set is to enhance our engagement with South America and we see an enhanced engagement with Brazil as being important to that. But we think historically, in some respects, South America has looked to the north, either to the United States or to Europe, now South America is looking east and west and Australia comes into its horizon. Australia, which has traditionally looked to Asia and the Pacific, is now also looking much further afield and we see enormous potential with our engagement in South America generally so we’re working very hard to enhance that engagement, we see that as being very important to Australia’s economic, but also to our general strategic future.
MS CUNHA: Ok, well I think it’s good. Thank you very much for your attention Mr Smith.
MR SMITH: Ok. Thanks Joana. Thanks very much.
26 August 2009
Source: http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/transcripts/2009/090826_cunha.html.
