Kevin Rudd (for once) lost for words as a special relationship turns sour

The Riddle of the Sphinx and what the Foreign Minister really thinks about democracy in Egypt

The Riddle of the Sphinx and what the Foreign Minister really thinks about democracy in Egypt

Kevin Rudd on Sky News on Saturday:

NEWSREADER: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said . . . that the people of Egypt need to decide what is going to happen there. How do you see that?

Rudd: Well, my more immediate concern is to the wellbeing of Australians in Cairo and for Australians considering the possibility of travelling to Egypt at this time. We're in the process of amending our travel advisory for Australians to read: reconsider your need to travel.

Newsreader: Do you have any concerns that any Australians are under direct threat in any of these cities where the rioting is taking place?

Rudd: We don't have information to that effect at this stage . . . The Egyptian people are waiting for an address to them by President Mubarak. But as I said before, notwithstanding the announcement of a curfew for this evening in Cairo, it appears that that curfew proclamation has been ignored. So, therefore, again I go back to the more basic question at this stage, which is the wellbeing of Australians in that part of the world.

Newsreader: Mr Rudd, if I can turn now to what is happening there and what you see as the future, do you think the people want more freedoms in their country? What's Australia's view on that? Do we support that?

Rudd: Well, the political situation is highly fluid, as a number of my colleagues from elsewhere around the world have said. We have long supported democratic transformation across the Middle East. We have equally strongly argued that this transformation should occur peacefully and without violence. That remains our view in terms of recent developments in Egypt as well.

Newsreader: The White House is suggesting that the Egyptians turn the internet back on and the social networks, that sort of thing, and of course to end the violence. You'd be supportive of that, would you?

Rudd: Well, I've not seen White House statements to that effect. I go back to what I said before. We ourselves have long supported democratic transformation across the Middle East and across the Arab world, but equally we strongly emphasise the importance for those things to occur peacefully and without violence. Therefore we should be exceptionally vigilant about what is occurring in Egypt at the moment. And again I go back to my earlier remarks, we must be first and foremost concerned, at times of great instability and violence on the streets in Cairo, about the wellbeing of Australians.

Rudd on Egyptian television, December 10, 2010:

INTERVIEWER: You were speaking of [Egypt as] Um Dunya [mother of the world]. Do you speak Arabic?

Rudd: Do you know something, my Arabic is non-existent. I speak Chinese and once you've learned any language, your brain wears out.

Interviewer: What are the highlights of this visit, sir?

Rudd: I'm looking forward very much to spending some time with the Foreign Minister to review our total relationship and where we take it in the future . . . I'm also seeing President Mubarak while I'm here in Cairo. I'm looking forward very much to doing that. I believe we can turn a new chapter in the Australia-Egypt relationship. There's nothing wrong with the past but we can do much much more. And that's why I'm here.

Rudd recalcitrant. Sky news report, January 19:

AUSTRALIA'S Coptic Christians are demanding the federal government use diplomacy to pressure Egypt to better protect members of their faith. More than 500 Coptics and their Muslim friends marched on Wednesday in central Sydney, calling on Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to address the issue, after a bomb blast killed 21 people during a New Year's Eve Coptic church service in Alexandria, Egypt. "We understand that Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard have not personally issued statements of condemnation," said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be named for safety reasons. "We don't understand why they're silent and other leaders aren't."

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