- Friday, May 17, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
FORMER Australian prime minister Paul Keating on Wednesday (10) spoke on a wide range of issues during a conversation with senior journalist and author Laura Tingle at the National Press Club in Canberra where he raised finger at Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on the question of human rights abuse.
When questioned about the abuse of human rights in China, the 77-year-old leader refused to see things in isolation and said the Chinese case “can’t be the whole conversation”.
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Keating, a Labor Party politician, said, “We should always speak out human rights, we should always reserve the right to speak out on human rights, whether it’s the Uyghurs in China, but can I also say, it’s the Muslims in Kashmir. Here is Prime Minister Modi, our new friend, who has suspended, repudiated the autonomy of Kashmir, which is 94% Muslim. No wave of indignation in the Sydney Morning Herald or the Age about that.
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I mean, India is an ally. We don’t talk about allies, we only talk about notional enemies. So I believe Australia should always have the right to speak in support [of human rights], but this is the key point: you can speak powerfully about the rights of citizens of these countries, but it can’t be the whole conversation. In other words, you can’t let the human rights discussions supplant wholly and completely the discussion between the countries.”
During his conversation, Keating mentioned Kashmir’s twice and abolition of Article 370, which gave a special status to Kashmir, in August 2019.
Among his other observations, the veteran Australian politician said Taiwan is not a vital interest for Australia; mocked the recent AUKUS security pact that Australia has made with the UK and the US; accused Australia’s political parties of losing their way on foreign policy and felt China wants respect for what it has created.
“What the Chinese want, I think, is respect for what they have created,” Keating, who was the prime minister of Australia between 1991 and 1996, said.
Keating criticised Australia’s current foreign policy saying the country is “very much at odds with its geography” and said India will not go with any naval military flotilla in the South China Sea to protect Australia from China.
Keating had met Modi in New Delhi in 2015, one year after the latter came to power in New Delhi.
