Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the House on developments in Pakistan? What are the implications for security in Afghanistan?

Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Chief Government Whip for his question. I start by associating myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition on the tragic death of an Australian soldier overnight in Afghanistan. Afghanistan remains a difficult and dangerous place, but the Australian government very strongly believes that it is in Australia’s national interest and in the interests of the international community for Australia to continue both its military and its civil reconstruction commitment in Afghanistan. We have a direct stake in ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for international terrorists. Regrettably, in addition to the death of an Australian soldier overnight, we have in the past—indeed, in recent times—seen Australians at risk of international terrorism in Bali and more recently among members of the coaching staff and umpiring contingent for the Sri Lankan touring cricket team in Lahore in Pakistan.

The Chief Government Whip asked me about Pakistan and the implications it has for Afghanistan. Pakistan is one of the most strategically important countries in the world: it is in South Asia, close to the Middle East, close to Central Asia and a nation which has nuclear weapons. It is important that we recognise Pakistan in its own right and also the implications that the Afghanistan-Pakistan border has for terrorist and extremist activity in Afghanistan. Having had the opportunity of personally seeing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, one appreciates just how porous that border is and how there needs to be intense cooperation between the government of Pakistan, the government of Afghanistan and the international community through the United Nations and the International Security Assistance Force to address and counter terrorism in that area.

We have seen the terrible recent atrocity against the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. But as late as yesterday we saw another terrorist attack where up to eight people were killed in a terrorist attack in Rawalpindi—and we condemn that absolutely. On the other hand, overnight we have seen—and I welcome very much—the news that the government of Pakistan has decided to reinstate former Chief Justice Chaudhry and other members of the judiciary and has decided to review the ban on former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother so far as their political activity or engagement is concerned and has decided that those arrested in the course of the so-called Long March will be released. We have seen, as a consequence, that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called off the Long March protest against the government. This has very considerably defused a political crisis in Pakistan.

We welcome very much the defusing of that crisis and we urge the political parties in Pakistan to work together to move forward to jointly combat terrorism and extremism. It is quite clear that, whatever political differences the political parties may have in Pakistan, the common enemy is terrorism. As my colleague the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, David Miliband, said recently:

Terrorism is a mortal threat to Pakistan—

or, as I have put it, a threat to Pakistan’s very existence, not just a matter for us to contemplate in terms of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

We do not underestimate the seriousness of the economic security and social challenges facing Pakistan at this time, which is why on my recent visit there I made it clear that Australia stands ready, willing and able to assist Pakistan in these difficult times while we are a founding ministerial member of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan which first met at the United Nations General Assembly in September last year.

In addition to the Minister for Defence meeting with his colleagues in Krakow recently and in addition to the Prime Minister’s forthcoming discussions with the President of the United States in The Hague on 31 March, I will be meeting with other foreign ministers to discuss the military and civil contribution that the international community can make to Afghanistan. This meeting of foreign ministers will be wider than NATO foreign ministers, wider than the International Security Assistance Force foreign ministers but will also include Afghanistan and Pakistan’s neighbours, including Iran, which is an important new development which I welcome. I look very much forward to discussing with my colleagues the important challenges that Afghanistan and Pakistan face.

Despite the risks, despite the difficulties and despite the tragic events that we have seen overnight it is absolutely in Australia’s national interest to continue to do our bit, to play our part with our international colleagues in seeking to stare down the terrorist threat that we currently find in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area. There is no doubt that that border area is the current hotbed of international terrorism and all our resolve is required to stare that down in conjunction with our partners, our neighbours and our allies.