Santiago, Chile, 18 November 2004 – Meeting on the sidelines of the 16th APEC Ministerial Meeting, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo  and  Australian  Foreign  Minister  Alexander  Downer today  agreed to further  boost relations between the Philippines and Australia, particularly in the area of cooperation in counter-terrorism.

“With relations between our countries continuing to grow and progress, Foreign Minister Downer and I agreed to consider raising our regular bilateral consultations to the Ministerial level,” Secretary Romulo said.  Regular bilateral consultations between the Philippines and Australia are currently held as senior official level.

“Foreign Minister Downer also expressed Australia’s strong support for our initiative in the United Nations to foster greater interfaith dialogue.  In this vein, Australia and Indonesia will host a Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation in Jogjakarta, Indonesia on 6-7 Dec 2004 and the Philippines has been invited to and will participate in this important meeting,” the Secretary said.

The two foreign ministers also discussed ways to boost counter-terrorism cooperation, with Australia congratulating and offering its full support for the Philippine Chairmanship of  APEC’s Counter-Terrorism Task Force. “Aside from cooperating within the context of APEC, we agreed to increase our bilateral counter-terrorism cooperation,” the Secretary said. “All such cooperation will of course be consistent with our laws and Constitution and will be with full regard for our sovereignty,” the Secretary added. “Focus will be in capacity building,” he said.

Minister Howard also expressed support for the efforts of the Philippines to achieve peace in the Southern Philippines by providing development assistance, particularly in post-conflict areas.  “We also agreed to expand our cooperation on the subregional level and I will be attending the Ministerial Meeting of the Southwest Pacific Forum in Adelaide on 2-4 December 04,” the Secretary said. END.
 

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