08 March 2011

Obama, Australia’s Gillard Discuss Afghanistan, Trade

President Obama and Prime Minister Gillard, shown visiting a school in Washington, said they will work together to transfer security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces in 2011.

Washington — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s meetings with President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton focused on shared efforts to transfer the security control of Afghanistan to Afghan forces as well as expanding trade in the Pacific region.

Gillard met with Obama at the White House March 7 and with Clinton at the State Department March 8. She will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress March 9, which the president said is “a high honor that is reserved for only our closest friends, and … it’s a measure of the degree to which Australians are held in such high esteem by Americans.”

After their meeting, Obama said he and the Australian premier had discussed the situation in Afghanistan, noting that Australia is the largest non-NATO member of the international coalition, with more than 1,550 Australian service members deployed in the country.

The Australians are making “extraordinary sacrifices in Afghanistan,” Obama said, adding that he and Gillard “discussed the fact that 2011 is going to be a year of transition in which we, more and more, provide the assistance necessary for Afghans to take the lead in that effort.”

Gillard said she is personally committed to seeing Australia complete its mission in Afghanistan and “ensuring we play our part in training the Afghan National Army and bringing security to Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can lead their own security.”

President Obama said the United States and Australia share common interests in “expanding trade in the Pacific region, in promoting clean energy, in making sure that we don’t have regulatory barriers that prevent our businesses from working across our borders.”

The United States is “very excited about the prospect of joining forces with Australia and other countries to promote growth and employees in the region,” he said.

The United States is Australia’s fifth-largest merchandise export market and its most important market for services, according to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is also Australia’s largest import source for services and second-largest import source for merchandise. The United States is also the largest investor in Australia.

Australia is the world’s 14th-largest importer of American goods and services. According to the U.S. Commerce Department’s Foreign Trade Statistics, U.S. exports to Australia totaled $21.803 billion and imports totaled $8.581 billion in 2010. Those figures represent an increase from 2009, when U.S. exports to Australia totaled $19.6 billion and imports totaled $8.011 billion.

President Obama will travel to Indonesia later in 2011 for the East Asia Summit, which the United States will formally join. He will also host the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) forum in Honolulu in November.

“I’ve talked to President Obama today about preparations for the G20, about its continuing importance in keeping a focus on growth and on jobs for the future,” Gillard said.

She added that she is hoping to see “major progress” at APEC, where the Trans-Pacific Partnership will be discussed, as well as at the Doha Round of trade talks that will be discussed at the upcoming summit of the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies in Seoul.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)