Canberra, 8 May 1972
Confidential
The Minister for Foreign Affairs will be making a statement on Foreign Policy in Parliament on 9 May. Extracts from the statement will be sent by telegram and copies of the full text by first bag.
In his statement the Minister refers to our interests in developments in the European Communities with Britain included and he would like you on his behalf to inform Sir Alec Douglas-Home as soon as possible of the following remarks:
‘Major Areas of Foreign Policy’
The European Communities with Britain included, 1 the United States and Japan are the major sources of foreign capital for investment in our resources development; with New Zealand they are our major trading partners, accounting for some 60% of the world’s trade and about 70% of Australian trade; and they are countries which have open forms of society with free speech and a free press and where there is the possibility at all times of ready communication at all levels with their peoples. They are countries whose current foreign policies do not contain significant elements hostile or inimical to us—on the contrary they share most of our hopes for a stable and peaceful world order.
I say this in order to place matters in some perspective. Our relationships with them—dynamic, not static—are of great and abiding concern to Australian foreign policy. To them must be added, of course, our friends and neighbours in the Asian and Pacific region. Together they constitute our major areas of foreign policy.
The Enlarged European Communities
On the basis of traditional trade patterns, the enlarged European Economic Communities will be our largest trading partner. The group will be a dominant force in international trade and finance. The individual member states will, of course, continue to develop their own individual foreign policies. However, it is probable that in the longer term we shall see an increasing movement towards a Communities’ foreign policy. Already the Communities have their own Commission member (Dr Dahrendorf)2 with special responsibilities for external relations. Already some countries accredit a separate ambassador to the Communities as well as an ambassador to each member country. Already the Communities have their own unofficial mission at the United Nations in New York. Already the ambassadors of the member countries in capitals such as Canberra meet on an informal basis and with a chairman from one of their number chosen in rotation to discuss, and perhaps to concert, their approach to foreign policy matters.
With the enlargement of the Communities following Britain’s entry, the great strength of the group may well lead to increasingly liberal and outward-looking policies, which could be of great importance to the stability of world trade and finance and to the future security of other countries throughout the world. It is our firm policy to develop a close and harmonious relationship with the group.
The Government has already taken steps in this direction. It has decided to strengthen our missions in the capitals of the enlarged Communities, especially in Brussels, the headquarters of the Communities, so that Australia will be more adequately equipped to influence and to follow developments in this vast new economic grouping.
We have recently had a visit from Dr Dahrendorf, the member of the Commission with special responsibilities for external relations. He has welcomed our intention of developing closer links with both the Commission and the individual members of the enlarged Communities.
The Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr Van Lennep,3 recently visited Australia for wide-ranging discussions with senior Ministers and officials. Our experience since June last year, when Australia became a full member, has confirmed the Government’s assessment that Australia stands to benefit in many ways from full membership of the OECD.
None of this involves any weakening of our close ties with Britain. On the contrary, with Britain in Communities and an influential member of the group, it is more than ever necessary that we strengthen and develop our relationship.4 We have decided that overall responsibility for the Australian High Commission in London will be transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Planning for the transfer has already reached an advanced stage and the initial practical steps have already been placed in train to bring it about smoothly and efficiently.
1 Britain was set to become a full member of the EEC on 1 January 1973. See documents in Part 2.
2 Ralf Dahrendorf, Member of the Commission of the European Communities, 1970–74.
3 Emil Van Lennep, Secretary-General of the OECD.
4 In an earlier draft, the words, ‘In this context’ were inserted here and subsequently deleted. See Document 383.
[NAA: Al209, 1971/9449 PART 1]