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| Down Under |
| Australia will ask China to put pressure on N.Korea |
| 2006-06-27 |
| PRIME Minister John Howard will urge China to pressure North Korea to abandon its long-range missile program when he meets Premier Wen Jiabao tomorrow. While trade is the major focus of Mr Howard's flying visit to the southern province of Guangdong, he said he would also discuss Iran and North Korea with the premier. "Those two countries continue to worry the world and, in the case of North Korea particularly, worry the region," Mr Howard told reporters shortly after arriving in the city of Shenzhen. "No other country has a greater influence on North Korea than does China. "I've had a regular dialogue with the Chinese leadership on North Korea over a number of years and I'll be resuming that dialogue when I meet the premier." Mr Howard, who was greeted by two lines of clapping hostesses as he entered his hotel today, will also discuss the progress of talks to set up a free trade agreement (FTA). If the pact goes ahead, it will be China's first with a developed economy. But Mr Howard says Australia will always have a "super dooper" economic relationship with China regardless. Exports to China have quadrupled in the past 10 years, without an FTA. "The negotiations are going quite well. I don't know how long they'll take to complete and I'm not giving a guarantee about either completion or a time," he said. "What we should remember is that whether we sign a free trade agreement with China or not, we have one super dooper economic relationship with this country and the quadrupling of exports over a period of 10 years is a pretty remarkable achievement and that's been done without a free trade agreement. "If we can add to it, that's good. But there are some important issues involved for the domestic industries of the two countries." Mr Howard and Premier Wen will tomorrow attend a ceremony marking the arrival of the first commercial shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia's North West Shelf. The $25 billion deal for long-term supply of LNG to China is Australia's single largest export deal. Mr Howard will also address a conference on the FTA before heading home on Thursday morning. He said he would not be discussing LNG prices as it was not the government's role to negotiate prices, but described the deal as the beginning of a further stage of expansion for the industry. "Of course China is not the only customer for Australian LNG - Japan and Korea are wonderful customers and I hope in time that the United States, particularly the west coast of the United States might become a customer," he said. "But it really is part of the opportunity Australia has to underpin China's enormous industrial expansion." Mr Howard described his trip as an "important symbolic visit" and an opportunity to have a lengthy discussion with Premier Wen. China is Australia's second largest trading partner after Japan, with exports to China hitting $16 billion last year - up 46 per cent - and imports rising 19 per cent to $21 billion. In April, Australia agreed to export uranium to China to fuel its booming nuclear power industry. |
| Posted by:Oztralian |
| #1 Australia should let it slip about the huge Japanese military expansion that is resulting from North Korea's nonsense. Nukes and everything. Glad we're down under, eh? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2006-06-27 12:44 |