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Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith, this week announced plans to provide a further $28 million over two years to non-government organisations (NGOs) as part of Australia’s Overseas Development Assistance program. Over the past two years, total funding to Australian NGOs for humanitarian and development assistance work has increased from six to eight percent of [...]
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Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith is in Korea today and tomorrow to meet with his Korean counterpart Yu Myung-hwan, Prime Minister Dr Chung Un-chan and other ministers at the Australia-Republic of Korea Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Seoul. Top of the agenda will be security, with expectation to build on the Australia-Korea Security Cooperation Initiative [...]
...read moreA visit to Sri Lanka by Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith earlier this week has resulted in both countries pledging to combat people smuggling, the financing of terrorism and related organised criminal activities. A statement from Smith’s department read: “People smuggling remains a high priority transnational issue for source, transit and destination countries in [...]
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Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith and Minister for Trade Simon Crean are in attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting in Singapore to discuss free trade and investment targets set in 1994. The so-called Bogor Goals, named after the summit held in Bogor, Indonesia, were to be achieved by 2010, but it [...]
...read moreMinister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith is in Sri Lanka today to discuss people smuggling with his counterpart, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, the first visit by an Australian foreign minister since 2003. “Mr Bogollagama and I will discuss bilateral and regional cooperation on people smuggling and ways in which Australia will continue to [...]
...read moreAustralia’s relationship with China has to be realistic considering it’s between a democracy and a communist nation, said Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith last night in an address to the Australian National University’s China Institute. “Australia is clear-eyed, not starry-eyed, in its assessment of China and its view of the bilateral relationship,” he said. [...]
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Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith has denied that payments proposed to Indonesia for taking on asylum seekers is ‘bounty’ for doing the dirty work. The funds given by Australia to Indonesia will be used to assist with the cost of detention, processing and settlement of refugees, he said: “I don’t think we should categorise [...]
...read moreFour Australian citizens and an Australian permanent resident have been confirmed dead in Samoa following the tsunamis that struck the island nation earlier this week. Six other Australians initially reported missing have been traced and are reportedly in good health. Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith says his department is searching for information to see [...]
...read moreKim Beazley, once leader of the Labor Party during the Howard Government era, has been named Australia’s next ambassador to the USA. Due to begin his post in November, Beazley will leave his current role as chancellor of the Australian National University and fulfil a long-standing interest in the US. “The US is a country [...]
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The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have launched an investigation into the 1975 deaths of five Australian journalists in Balibo, East Timor, more than 18 months after a NSW coronial inquest concluded Indonesian forces had killed them to cover up their invasion of East Timor. Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith indicated that the AFP operates [...]
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