News Stories – 21 February 2008
Shooting of President Ramos-Horta and the situation in East Timor
The Australian Government deplores the shocking incidents in East Timor on 11 February, in which President Ramos-Horta was shot and wounded, and Prime Minister Gusmao’s convoy was fired upon and home attacked.
The Prime Minister said in his press conference on 11 February that the Australian Government would stand resolutely in support of East Timor at this difficult time.
Mr Rudd visited East Timor on 15 February to convey these and other messages in person to Prime Minister Gusmao and other senior figures.
Mr Rudd also foreshadowed options for further Australian long-term support for stability and economic development in East Timor, including further assistance to East Timor’s military and police and economic cooperation in the areas of agriculture and youth employment. Mr Gusmao warmly welcomed Mr Rudd’s visit, and Australia’s steadfast support.
On the same day as the attacks, the Prime Minister announced that Australia would provide, at the request of the East Timorese Government, a substantial and immediate reinforcement of troops and police under the auspices of the International Stabilisation Force. The deployment of approximately 200 soldiers and 70 police was completed by 13 February.
Mr Smith met East Timor’s Foreign Minister, Zacarias Albano da Costa, on 18 February during the latter’s official visit to Australia (17-23 February) and discussed responses to the attacks and other bilateral issues.
President Ramos Horta is currently in the Royal Darwin Hospital’s National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre where he is being well cared for. His condition remains serious but stable.
Cluster Munitions
Australia is a strong and active supporter of a ban on those cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. In our support for this goal in international negotiations, we need to protect core national security interests.
The Government engages actively in the Oslo Process and the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention, which are the two international fora that work on cluster munitions.
The Wellington meeting on 18-22 February 2008 on the Oslo Process is a key opportunity to make progress on banning cluster munitions that are unreliable and inaccurate, and cause unacceptable harm to civilians.
It is important for national security that an international instrument should ban only those cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians and not compromise national defence capabilities including interoperability with allies. Avoiding legal barriers to interoperability and coalition operations, while preserving the humanitarian aims of the instrument, is a concern shared by many like-minded countries (NATO members and Japan). Australia provides significant mine action assistance to countries where explosive remnants of war, including cluster munitions, pose a humanitarian hazard.
News Stories – 14 February 2008
Indonesian Foreign Minister’s Visit to Australia
During a visit to Australia by Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Australia and Indonesia agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in the areas of security, counter-terrorism and HIV.
Australia and Indonesia exchanged notes to bring the Australia-Indonesia Framework for Security Cooperation (the Lombok Treaty) into force during a visit to Perth by Indonesia’s Foreign minister Dr Hassan Wirajuda on 7 February. Dr Wirajuda also met Prime Minister Rudd in Sydney on 8 February.
The Lombok Treaty signifies a shared commitment to enhance bilateral security cooperation. The Agreement provides a strong legal framework for cooperation to combat terrorism and transnational crime in the areas of defence, law enforcement, intelligence, maritime and aviation security, and in relation to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and emergency management and response.
In a practical demonstration of this commitment, Ministers agreed on two important security-related initiatives:
- to renew for a further three years the Memorandum of Understanding between Australia and Indonesia on Combating International Terrorism.
- to institute new counter-terrorism consultations at officials-level to underpin and enhance our ongoing bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation.
Another critical issue on which Australia and Indonesia are cooperating is to halt and then reverse the spread of HIV by 2015. During Dr Wirajuda’s visit, Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced that in 2008 Australia will commence a new program with Indonesia to give people with HIV, or at risk of contracting HIV, better access to essential treatment and prevention. Australia will spend $40 million on the HIV Cooperation Program for Indonesia. Specific assistance will be provided to Papua where the rate of HIV amongst adults risks becoming the highest in Asia. The Program is part of a $100 million commitment over eight years to tackle HIV.
Education is now Australia’s third largest export
Education is now Australia’s third largest export, surpassed only by coal and iron ore. Education exports have been growing at an average annual rate of 16 per cent per annum over the last 15 years.
Australian education exports were worth $11.7 billion in 2006-07, and are estimated to have reached $12.9 billion in the 2007 calendar year, representing a 20 per cent increase over 2006 levels.
In the year to November 2007, there were more than 450,000 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa. This represents an 18.8 per cent increase on the same period in 2006. Australia is the third largest English-speaking destination for international students in higher education, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.
China (23.6 per cent), India (13.9 per cent) and South Korea (7.6 per cent) are the largest sources of international student enrolments in Australia. Around 40 per cent of international student enrolments are in the higher education sector (which accounts for 70 per cent of fees earned), with vocational education and English language courses also very significant. The key factors influencing international students to study in Australia are the quality and reputation of Australian education providers and the safe and secure environment offered in Australia.
Australian Government hands back stolen 15th century map to Spain
The Australian Government has handed back a rare 500-year old map to Spain, confirming in practice Australia’s continuing commitment to protecting significant cultural heritage items of other countries.
At a ceremony at the National Library of Australia in Canberra on 4 February Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Anthony Byrne, formally returned to His Excellency Mr Antonio Cosano, Ambassador of Spain, one of the world’s great treasures – a rare and beautiful 500 year-old map from Ptolemy’s Cosmographia.
Based on the work of ancient astronomer and geographer Claudius Ptolemy, and printed in Germany in 1482, the map shows how the world was viewed before the era of great explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
The map was one of 18 rare documents reported stolen from the National Library of Spain in August 2007. It was seized in Sydney in October 2007 after the Spanish Government asked the Australian Government to help with the map’s identification and repatriation. Through the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 the Australian Government responds to official requests from foreign governments to return illegally-exported cultural heritage objects.
The return of the Ptolemy world map is an excellent example of how Australia is helping protect significant – and ultimately, irreplaceable – cultural heritage items of other countries.
This repatriation follows last month’s return of 750 kilograms of illegally-imported Chinese dinosaur, mammal and reptile fossils. Other objects returned recently include 130 kilograms of dinosaur and plant fossils returned to Argentina in August 2007; 16 Dyak skulls returned to Malaysia in May 2007; and an Asmat human skull returned to Indonesia in December 2006.