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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
NOVEMBER 5, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 44
'East Timor Is a Tough Job'
Australia's Downer on relations with Asia
By SANGWON SUH and JOSE MANUEL TESORO Jakarta
ALSO IN ASIAWEEK
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Are you disappointed by Southeast Asian criticism of Australia's role in East Timor?
Australia was asked to do the job and most people would judge it is doing the job very well. It's a tough job. But it's important that the East Timor issue be resolved once and for all. Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines are making a strong contribution to Interfet [the peacekeeping force] and we really appreciate it. There has been criticism in Indonesia and from some sectors in Malaysia, but around Southeast Asia there is much respect for what Australia is doing.
Should Southeast Asia take the lead when the United Nations force comes in?
There will be a transition from Interfet to the U.N. We hope it will be sooner rather than later, perhaps at the end of this year or in January. Our expectation is that countries in the region, not just Southeast Asia, will make a significant contribution. Australia will continue to contribute, though on a smaller scale. We will go from 4,500 troops down to between 1,500 and 2,000.
Are Australia's ties with Asia dented by East Timor?
The reverse is true. What we have done is appreciated by countries such as Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Japan and Korea. You can't talk about Asia as some monolithic whole. There has been criticism in Indonesia, but this is just using Australia as a scapegoat. It isn't based on fact. The fact is that [Jakarta] decided it would allow a referendum and the referendum produced the result it did. The fact is that Indonesia, when security broke down in East Timor, asked the international community to come in and help restore security. And that has happened. The criticism will blow over.
Is there a "Howard doctrine"?
We've never used the expression as a government. It was used by a magazine. Our position has been - and remains - that we work closely with countries in our region, with which we have deep and strong relations. Gone with the Cold War are the days when nations, whichever side they were on, can just signal to Washington or Moscow that they would like them to come in and fix some problem. Now the region has to be more self-sufficient in addressing its problems. Though we much appreciate U.S. support for Interfet, it is a regional country, Australia, which has had to take the leading role. That's just the way the world is today. I wouldn't call that any doctrine.
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Intelligence: The View from Down Under
An interview with Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer [more extracts from this interview]
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