 |
Australian-Indonesian Talks to Look for Tampa Solution
The Indonesian Ambassador to Australia will meet with Australian foreign affairs officials later Thursday as part of attempts to resolve the diplomatic stand-off over the Norwegian container ship,Tampa.
The Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, says the situation on board the vessel is stable.
The ship remains about four nautical miles off Christmas Island, despite Government requests for it to move out of Australian waters.
Mr Ruddock says medicine, food and other supplies have been provided to the nearly 460 asylum seekers on the ship.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, says negotiations are continuing to resolve the impasse.
"Discussions have taken place today, further discussions will be occurring later today," he said.
"At this stage, it's not appropriate for me to canvass the substance of those but when it is, I will hope to be in a position to talk further, initially, on a confidential basis and later if it's appropriate and I have sufficient [information, I will] inform the house."
Indonesia has reiterated it will not accept the stranded asylum seekers.
The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, says his country is under no international obligation to accept the Tampa or the asylum seekers.
He says as a matter of principle, Indonesia will refuse entry for the group.
"Indonesia will reject any attempts on the part of any ships that carry illegal migrants to any Indonesian port," Mr Wirayuda said.
While there is little sympathy from Jakarta over this case, Mr Wirayuda says people smuggling is a major international issue and Indonesia is willing to cooperate with other countries to combat the problem.
In This Section
|