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Remarks
by Secretaries Clinton and Panetta in San Francisco, Calif., for the
Celebration of 60 Years of the U.S.-Australia Alliance
SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon, everyone. It is a great
pleasure for Secretary Panetta and I to welcome Foreign Minister Rudd
and Defense Minister Smith and the entire Australian delegation, our
friends and our partners, here today. I must say, on a personal note,
it's a special pleasure to see my friend Kevin Rudd back on his feet,
serving his country, and making this important journey to be with us
here today.
We have come to San Francisco to celebrate 60 years of the
U.S.-Australia alliance in the place where it was born. Here at the
Presidio Golden Gate Club back in 1951, in the month of September, our
predecessors signed the treaty that cemented the ties between our
nations. Today, we reflect on that history, celebrate the vision of
those who brought our alliance to life, and chart a common path forward
together. And as we announced earlier this week, President Obama will be
visiting Australia in November to commemorate this important milestone
and to advance our alliance.
For 60 years now, each new global challenge has brought with it
a new cause for cooperation with Australia and an ever stronger
partnership grounded in our shared values. And that is exactly what
happened 10 years ago. When America was attacked on September 11th, just
days after the 50th anniversary of our alliance, Australia invoked the
treaty to come to our defense.
In the decade since, Australia's men and women have fought
alongside our own, just as they have in every major conflict since the
First World War. In Afghanistan, Australia is the largest non-NATO
contributor to our mission. In Libya, Australia now provides 10 percent
of the international humanitarian budget. So from cyberspace to food
security, Australia makes vital contributions to global security,
stability, and well-being. And we greatly appreciate their efforts.
As Pacific powers, the United States and Australia are
committed to working together to seize the opportunities of a
fast-changing Asia- Pacific region. Our alliance has provided a context
for the region's dynamic economic growth by underwriting peace and
security and promoting trade and prosperity. The detailed joint
communique are releasing today reflects the full range of our shared
interests, values, and vision from maritime cooperation to joint
development projects to building stronger ties with India to promote
democracy and prosperity in the Pacific Islands.
We are working to encourage trade through the Trans-Pacific
Partnership and through APEC, whose leaders the President will be
hosting this fall in Hawaii. Together, we are strengthening regional
institutions like the East Asia Summit and ASEAN. And as Secretary
Panetta will explain, our military relationship is deepening and
becoming even more consequential.
One country of particular shared concern is Burma. In recent
weeks, we have seen some welcome gestures from Burma's Government. It's
important for us and for others to try to understand better what is
unfolding in Burma today. Our new special representative and policy
coordinator for Burma, Ambassador Derek Mitchell, has just returned from
his first visit to the country, one that included productive meetings
with both the government and Aung San Suu Kyi.
Frankly, we have serious question and concerns across a wide
range of issues, from Burma's treatment of ethnic minorities and more
than 2,000 prisoners to its relations with North Korea. Still, we
welcome the fact that the Burmese Government has launched a dialogue
with Aung Sun Suu Kyi and begun to speak of the need for important
reforms. But just yesterday, Burma added 10 years to a prison sentence
of a 21-year-old journalist. So I would urge the Burmese Government to
follow its words and commitments with concrete actions that lead to
genuine reform, national reconciliation, and respect for human rights.
The ties between our nations are as close as any in the world.
Our peoples and our governments overwhelmingly support our partnership.
And although Australians have taken over the Oscars, the Tour de France,
and now the U.S. Open, our affection for your country remains
undiminished. (Laughter.) The communique have produced today is
forward-looking and action-oriented, and it reflects our confidence in
this alliance and in what our two countries can and will accomplish
together.
So today we celebrate 60 years of a strong, steady alliance. We
honor those who fought and sacrificed to sustain it, and we recommit
ourselves to continue to work closely together as allies and friends to
make good on its full promise for many years to come.
Secretary Panetta. I think Foreign Minister Rudd.
FOREIGN MINISTER RUDD: Thank you very much, Secretary of State
Clinton and Secretary of Defense Panetta. Both Stephen and I have
appreciated the hospitality here in San Francisco, and at this 60th
anniversary of the alliance which shares our two countries. It is good
that we reflect on why we have this alliance. Sixty years is no small
span of time. If you're a student of military history, there are few
alliances in history, in modern history, which have outlasted that span
of time. And so we should ask ourselves why is that so in the case of
this alliance between our two great democracies.
I think the answers can be found in the extraordinary ties
between our two peoples. The answers can also be found in the fact that
between us we are among the world's oldest continuing democracies, and
therefore at the deepest level we share common values. No one can
overestimate the importance of the sharing of common values. Of course,
we share common interests as well in the complex challenges which
confront us today in the international community. But the reason that we
have endured these 60 years, and, I believe, have a long span of time
ahead of us yet in this alliance, is because we are fundamentally
anchored in a common view of what is important in the affairs of the
world.
As Secretary of State Clinton just mentioned, we're reminded
just recently of the importance of those values. Ten years ago, we saw
the horrendous attacks on innocent Americans and citizens from across
the world here in the United States on September 11. We in Australia
were shocked then, as we remain shocked now, at such a callous act. It
cut deep into the hearts of Australians. They saw, they felt, and we
knew we were as one. That sentiment remains alive 10 years later. For
our friends in America, I sense very closely and acutely that the
feelings of that day are still very close, though a decade has now
elapsed. It is a salient reminder of our common challenge based on our
common values, to deal robustly, comprehensively, and globally with the
challenge of terrorism today. And that's one of the reasons we cooperate
together at this great alliance between Australia and the United
States.
In our discussions today, we have covered a great scope and a
great span. We've reviewed our engagement across the Asia-Pacific
region. This region of ours, the Asia-Pacific the waters of the Pacific
we see out here off the coast of San Francisco. This region will be the
center of gravity for global economic growth, for global security for
the half century to come. And it is in our combined interest, therefore,
to ensure that this Pacific century is indeed a Pacific century. And
therefore, that must be based on not just the sharing of values but
concrete cooperation in the hard areas of foreign policy and national
security policy, and that is what we have reviewed again today: our
engagement with China and the countries of Northeast Asia, including the
Republic of Korea and Japan; in Southeast Asia, our common engagements
with countries there, including Australia's nearest neighbor, the
Republic of Indonesia, now a welcome member of the family of
democracies; our common engagement across the Indian Ocean and South
Asia, and our relationship, of course, important that it is, with India.
We focused also on regional challenges, and the nuclear program
being adopted by North Korea is one which profoundly concerns our two
countries and profoundly concerns the Government of Australia. More
broadly of course, we also reviewed our common interests in the Middle
East. The peace process, the recent changes underway in Egypt, in Libya,
and we follow with great, great concern the continued and systematic
abuse of human rights and the killing of innocent people in Syria.
The Secretary just mentioned Burma. I would endorse
wholeheartedly her remarks. When I visited Burma myself just a couple of
months ago, I emphasized there to the regime that if they wish to
engage international community comprehensively, then the first and
foremost requirement is to deal with the state of democratic conditions
within their own country and the absolute imperative of the release of
prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners in that country.
We welcome recent signs from the Burmese regime that they are open to
such a dialogue, but like the United States, we proceed cautiously and
we would call on the Burmese regime to talk concrete steps to manifest
to the world at large that they are serious about that country becoming a
democracy without the threat of imprisonment for those who impose
those who pose, in the regime's view, a threat to them.
Finally, this is a significant AUSMIN conference. It is
significant because we have also addressed new challenges of a global
nature for the future. Here I refer in particular to the challenges
represented by cyber security. What we are doing today in the statement
that we've released, in separate joint statement on cyberspace is
underline that this is a new area of operational engagement between
ourselves and the United States in this critical area which affects
governments, businesses, and citizens the world over, the region over,
and in our countries individually as well.
I'll draw in particular attention to the reflections and the
statement contained within the joint statement on cyberspace. It says,
and I quote: "We" that is the Governments of Australia and the United
States "recognize that cyberspace plays a growing role in ensuring
national security." Mindful of our longstanding defense relationship and
the 1951 security treaty, our governments share the view that in the
event of a cyber attack that threatens the territorial integrity,
political independence or security of either of our nations, Australia
and the United States would consult together and determine appropriate
options to address the threat.
This represents a new dimension of our lives, an important
dimension given the realities we face in this 21st century. One cyber
attack can cripple an economy for hours and days on end. Let there be no
doubt, cyber attacks are not only attack on governments, they can
cripple businesses, and Australian businesses are not immune. We know
that Australian businesses have already been the subject of cyber
attacks. And if it's a big enough economy, it would have reverberations
throughout the world. Like terrorism, it's a battleground that is fought
unconventionally, often without a known enemy. That is why it critical
that this become a formal part of our alliance deliberations and
committed cooperation in the event of such attack in the future.
If I could conclude by saying this: We in Australia look
forward to the upcoming visit by President Obama to Australia. Any
president of the United States is a welcome guest in Australia. We look
forward very much to that visit, we look forward to making the President
welcome in our country, and it constitutes, in our view, a further
symbol and signpost of the significant relationship which expands not
just across the foreign policy and security sphere, which we have dealt
with here, but across the full breadth of the engagement between our two
great democracies. Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Kevin. Leon?
SECRETARY PANETTA: I'd like to join Secretary Clinton in
extending a very warm official welcome to Minister Rudd and Minister
Smith and all of our Australian colleagues and thank them for traveling
all the way across the Pacific to join us in marking a very historic
event here at the Presidio. It's a real pleasure for me personal
pleasure for me to be able to participate in my first Australian-U.S.
ministerial, and all the more so because it gives me an opportunity to
show off my home state of California and this great city of San
Francisco to these dear friends.
The depth and breadth of discussions we've had here today
really do confirm for me that the United States has no closer ally than
Australia. Sixty years after the signing of the ANZUS Treaty here at the
Presidio, we come together again today and affirm this alliance, affirm
that it remains strong, and that we are determined to deepen our
security cooperation even further to counter the threats and challenges
that we face in the future.
With that goal in mind, we discussed today the efforts of the
Bilateral Force Posture Working Group, the United States and Australia
working together, which has been making steady progress in developing
options for our two militaries to be able to train and operate together
more closely, including more combined defense activities and a shared
use of facilities. This work to strengthen our alliance's presence and
posture in the Pacific reflects a reality we all recognize: security and
prosperity of our two great nations depends on the security and
prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.
We also discussed, as has been pointed out here, a whole range
of efforts to enhance cooperation in emerging domains such as space and
cyberspace. The joint statement on cyber released today sends a very
strong signal about our commitment to work together to counter and
respond to cyber attacks. I've often mentioned this is the battlefield
of the future, and our ability to work together is extremely important
to the challenge of being able to counter this very significant emerging
threat.
As we work to build on these new areas of cooperation, American
and Australian forces continue to fight together in Afghanistan as they
have in every major conflict over the past century. I expressed to
Minister Rudd and to Minister Smith and all of our Australian friends
that were gathered here the deep appreciation of the United States
Government and the American people for their very strong partnership in
these efforts, and for the considerable sacrifices Australian troops and
their families have made during this time of war.
Over the past decade, and indeed for the past 60 years, we have
gone into battle together and we have bled together because of the
shared values and the deep bonds between our people. We are both
immigrant nations, and that creates a very strong bond between the
United States and Australia, particularly for this son of immigrants. As
we mark the 60th year of our alliance, I have no doubt that if we
continue to work together hand-in-hand, we can build a better and safer
and more prosperous future for our two countries.
DEFENSE MINISTER SMITH: Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. I
thank you and Secretary Panetta for your warm hospitality and for our
very productive meeting today. I'm very pleased to be here to mark the
60th anniversary of our alliance, an alliance between Australia and the
United States which was forged in the battle for Australia, the battle
in the Pacific, in the Second World War. And to mark that, later this
afternoon I'll lay a wreath at the USS San Francisco Memorial. But out
of that battle in the Pacific in the Second World War, in 1951 came our
formal alliance. And for 60 years, that alliance has been the
indispensible bedrock of Australia's strategic security and defense
arrangements.
The people, our predecessors, who wrote and signed the alliance
would not have envisaged that 10 years ago yesterday, the alliance
would be formally invoked for the first occasion in the face of
international terrorism against a non-state actor, not against another
nation-state. And today, we formally record as one of our resolutions
from AUSMIN that cyberspace and an attack on the United States or an
attack upon Australia in cyberspace could itself invoke the treaty. This
tells us that the treaty, which we have both respected over that
60-year period, is a living document that moves with the times, as it
did 10 years and 1 day ago, in the aftermath of September 11th.
Can I also indicate that the discussions we've had today also
deal with other challenges for the future our cooperation in space and
space awareness, our cooperation in ballistic missile defense. In
addition to those productive discussions, as Secretary Panetta has said,
we've done further work on the joint working group that we've
established 12 months ago in Melbourne on the United States Global Force
Posture Review. And we received a report from our offices, work on that
Global Force Posture Review is ongoing. But we are looking at increased
joint exercises, increased joint training, increased joint operations.
As I've put it colloquially in Australia, more ships in, ships out; more
planes in, planes out; more troops in, troops out. We have further work
to do, but we regard this work as very important.
As Secretary Panetta has said, we also spent some time dealing
with Afghanistan, yet another of the conflicts that the United States
has been involved in where Australia has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with
the United States. We remain committed to the transition strategy.
Australia's assessment is that in Uruzgan province, where we are, we
will effect transition before the end of 2014. We've also started
discussions about what contribution Australia can make in the
post-transition Afghanistan, whether that's special forces, whether
that's training, whether that is institutional building, development
assistance, capacity building.
Secretary Panetta and I also discussed issues of budget
constraints and capability, in particular the very good cooperation that
we are seeing in a very important project for Australia, our new
submarine project. And I'm gratified to Secretary Panetta for the
ongoing cooperation that Australia is and will receive so far as work on
that project is concerned for 12 new submarines.
We also spoke about the joint strike fighter and the need to
ensure that the joint strike fighter is delivered on schedule. I've made
the point in Australia and in the United States before that we are keen
to ensure that there is no gap in our capabilities so far as our air
combat capacity is concerned in Australia.
So today, we've dealt with the range and the array of shared
interests that Australia and the United States have, including the fact,
as the foreign minister has said, we regard very much this century as
the century of the Asia Pacific, where political, strategic, economic,
and military influence moves to our part of the world. The rise of
China, the rise of India, the rise of the ASEAN economies combined, the
emergence of Indonesia as a global influence, and the ongoing economic
prowess of Japan and the Republic of Korea. So all of these issues we
have dealt with in the context of an alliance between two nations, an
alliance between friends, which has served us well for 60 years and will
continue to serve us well into the future. Thank you.
MS. NULAND: We have time for four questions today, two from each side. First question to Reuters, Arshad Mohammed. Please.
QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, are the U.S. officials and the EU
officials and former Prime Minister Tony Blair making any discernable
progress on the Israeli-Palestinian issue? And can you conceive of a way
to give the Palestinians a non-member state status at the UN while
curbing or restricting their ability to go to the ICC or the ICJ? In
other words, is there a way to give a nod toward statehood for the
Palestinians but to prevent some of the deleterious consequences that
could flow from that status, in your view?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Arshad, as I said on Tuesday, we
believe strongly that the road to peace and two states living side by
side does not go through New York; it goes through Jerusalem and
Ramallah. And it is our absolute conviction that we need to get the
parties back into negotiations on a direct face-to-face basis and that
they have to be at that negotiating table working through the framework
that President Obama laid out in May. That remains our focus. We are
absolutely committed to pursuing that. As you know, Dennis Ross and
David Hale are back in the region, having been there as well just a few
days ago. We are working closely with a range of international partners,
and we intend to keep our attention where we think it needs to be,
which is how we can try to convince both sides to do what must be done
in order to bring about a resolution of the issues between them, and
that's going to be certainly the core of all of our efforts for the next
several days.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I'm not going to get into specifics,
because a lot of these are very sensitive conversations that we are all
having, and I don't think it would benefit the decision-making for me to
be speaking prematurely. I cannot give you the odds on how successful
our entire effort will be, but I think there is certainly a growing
recognition among not only the parties and the region, but beyond, that
there is no real answer to all of these concerns that we share, other
than negotiations on the tough issues, like borders, like security, and
other matters that can only be resolved and will not be resolved if
some other route is taken at the United Nations.
MS. NULAND: Next question, Brad Norrington, The Australian.
QUESTION: Could I direct this question to Defense Secretary
Panetta and Defense Minister Smith? Could you detail how Australia is
going to see a considerably increased number of U.S. ships, aircraft,
and personnel? And is the boosted U.S. presence in Australia likely to
involve existing facilities or new facilities?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Stephen, you want to start?
DEFENSE MINISTER SMITH: Well, we've been working on the Force
Posture Review for the last 12 months. In Melbourne, at AUSMIN 2010, we
established the joint working party. Then-Secretary Gates and I made the
point that a lot of work needs to be done. But we were looking, and
both Secretary Gates and I repeated this at the Shangri-La Dialogue in
Singapore in July, from memory, that we were looking at opportunities
for further exercises together, further training together, the
possibility of pre-positioning stores and equipment in Australia for
purposes of humanitarian relief and disaster assistance and potentially
greater access to ports and our facilities. We've come to no final
conclusions. We're very pleased with the progress that our offices have
made, and we are pleased with the progress of discussions today.
But we've got more work to do. There are a range of things that
we're not envisioning. We don't have United States bases in Australia.
We have joint facilities, and they've been established for some time.
They perform a very important function. And we've had those joint
facilities since the mid 1980s. So we're not looking at additional or
new facilities; we're looking at the sharing of current facilities. And
I've made the point in Australia, whilst we regard this very much
potentially as an extension of work we already do, good work we already
do, it will in an operational sense be the single largest potential
change to the day-to-day working arrangements of the alliance since the
establishment of those joint facilities. But no decisions have been
made. When to come to finalize our deliberations, obviously decisions
will be made and announcements made in due course. But we are pleased
today with the work that our officials had done, both civilian and
military, and pleased with the progress of discussions today.
SECRETARY PANETTA: Obviously, I concur with what Minister Smith
said about our discussions. I think the thing to understand is that we
are in negotiations on what that force posture would look like. Those
discussions are continuing, and our goal is basically to build on a very
strong relationship that we've had throughout the years. We've done
exchanges, we've had these exercises together. This is something we've
done pretty much in the past, and our goal here is to try to strengthen
that relationship as best we can so that we can send a clear signal to
the Asia Pacific region that United States and Australia are going to
continue to work together to make very clear to those that would
threaten us that we are going to stick together.
MS. NULAND: Next question, Dan Deluce, AFP.
QUESTION: Yes. To Secretary Clinton and Secretary Panetta, given
that the two U.S. hikers were not released, despite the promise of the
Iranian President Ahmadinejad, what do you think that says about his
role and the power relationships inside that regime, and how does that
affect your efforts to try to curtail that country's nuclear program?
And Secretary Panetta, do you share the view that a U.S. that
some kind of military strike on Iran's program would merely delay that
program?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, let me begin by perhaps providing a
little context. We continue to hope that the two young Americans will be
released as part of a humanitarian gesture by the Iranian Government.
We have seen in the past some delays that have occurred after decisions
were announced, so that at this point, we are not at all concerned,
because we have received word through a number of sources, publicly and
privately, that the decision will be executed on and that we will see
their return to their families.
So I'm not going to speculate on what the reasons are or what it
might mean or might not mean, but I'm going to count on the Iranian
Government fulfilling the announcement that was made by the leadership
of the country, and hope that it can be expedited and we can see their
release very soon.
SECRETARY PANETTA: And I, again, concur with Secretary Clinton's
description of that situation. I mean, it's very difficult for us to
try to speculate as to the differences and battles that are going on in
the political leadership within Iran and to really understand just
exactly what the nature of that is. Our goal here is to try to get these
hikers released, and we've been assured that steps will be taken to
make that happen, and we hope that does that is the case.
With regards to the broader question on Iran's nuclear
capability, we remain very concerned, very concerned, about their
efforts to develop a nuclear capability, and we have indicated our
concerns directly to the Iranians, and we have indicated that it is
important for them if they want to become part of the international
family that they have to take steps to stop progress in that area. And
I'm not going to talk specifically about what steps we would or would
not take in order to make sure that doesn't happen.
MS. NULAND: One last question. Ben Potter, Australian Financial Review.
QUESTION: This is a question for Secretary Panetta. Will the
U.S. be able to fulfill its side of the agreement envisaged by the what
you've discussed and announced today regardless of Defense budget
outcomes from the current talks, both in terms of personnel, existing
equipment, and acquisitions of expensive new equipment projects on which
interoperability depends?
And also for Secretary Minister Rudd I'm sorry how do you
plan to reassure Beijing that this is not somehow directed at them,
given especially given Secretary Panetta's strong statement a few
minutes ago about people in the region better look out?
SECRETARY PANETTA: With regards to the budget situation, I
think, as I've made clear, that even with the numbers that have been
presented to us by the Congress that we believe that we can implement
those savings in a way that protects the best military in world and that
maintains our strength in dealing with all of the threats that we have
to deal with in the world. And that's particularly true with regards to
the Asia-Pacific region. My goal is to make clear that the United States
will always maintain a very strong presence in that part of the world
and that we will fulfill our commitments to Australia and all of our
allies in that part of the world in order to make very certain that the
countries in the Asia-Pacific region understand that we're there to
stay.
FOREIGN MINISTER RUDD: On the second half of your question, I
think it's important to recognize the fundamental principal here which
is the long term prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region rests on
continued strategic stability of the Asia-Pacific region. The question
is how is that stability to be maintained in a post-war period? And the
answer is the strategic presence of United States. It has been the
underpinnings of what we have seen unfold. And if I look particularly at
the extraordinary economic growth levels that have occurred in China,
by the countries in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia and now South Asia
in recent decades, it's because of the continued U.S. strategic
presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
I think the second point is this, that there is nothing
particularly novel about U.S. forces using Australian facilities. I
think that's been the case since 1951, under the terms of this alliance,
and then if we flick back another decade or so to 1941. There have been
U.S. troops, U.S. aircraft, there have been U.S. ships using our
facilities since year dot of our strategic cooperation, and probably
going back to the days of the Great White Fleet in 1907, 1908. But
there's nothing new under the sun. In terms of the further negotiations
between officials, I simply reinforce the comments made before by
Stephen Smith.
I think the last thing about
the future of the region though, is we have a common regional interest
in establishing a wider sense of security community across Asia and the
Pacific. That is why we, and our friends the United States, but also
countries right across East Asia, including China, have supported the
inclusion of the United States and Russia at the upcoming East Asia
Summit. That will have on it, obviously, a significant discussion of
regional political and security questions, as it should. And the overall
objective there is to bring about a greater common sense of security
between the various countries of our wider region greater transparency,
greater mutual trust, expanding confidence and security building
measures, the sorts of things the Europeans were working on something
like 35 years ago or more. Frankly, in the Asia-Pacific region where
we've started from very little of that, we have an opportunity now to
build on that. So for those various reasons I believe our communications
with our partners in the wider region should present no difficulty at
all.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
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