Prime Minister, distinguished Australian and American guests, members of our two armed forces, and friends:

Prime Minister Howard has spoken eloquently and passionately about the enduring strength of the Australia-U.S. Alliance. As he noted, our ANZUS treaty has now formed the bedrock of our relationship for five decades -- The Prime Minister has spoken as well about the strengths that underlie the unique bonds that join Australia and the United States. He also recalled that our relationship is based on much more than a simple military pact.

Our uniquely close ties are built on a similar view of how societies should work, and on how governments should interact with people. Both our societies could be said to hark back to the underlying premise of the Magna Carta: Namely, that governments are the instruments of the people, and that their success can only be gauged in terms of how well they fulfill that goal.

Such a premise may sound like a simple one. Yet, its defense has been at the heart of much of the conflict that has arisen over the past century.

For this reason, although our political systems are far from identical and many of our practices differ, Australians and Americans have inevitably found ourselves on the same side of defining world events since achieving nationhood.

I think back to 1951 and I pay tribute to those who worked so hard to draft and then to ratify our alliance. But our cooperation and the foundations of our alliance began almost four decades earlier.

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We first fought side by side during World War I, near the town of Le Hamel (le ha-Mel), in France. Australian troops, led by Lieutenant General John Monash, were joined there by the US 33^rd National Guard Division. Together, they broke through the enemy's front lines, which marked a major event in bringing that tragic conflict to a close. This event is not simply a page of history written in some book but an event that touched individual's lives and the destiny of countries. For people fought and died that day and many Australians and Americans know people who were there. Prime Minister Howard's own father and grandfather fought together as part of the First Australian Division in the terrible battle of Villers Bretonneux (vee-YEA bre-toe-no). Not twenty kilometers away from Le Hamel.

Australian and American forces came together again in the earliest days of World War II. Only weeks after Pearl Harbor, Australia was itself the victim of a devastating surprise attack on Darwin, where the first casualty was an American sailor, and where the USS Peary was sunk defending that harbor and town.

During those same terrible days, other Australian and American ships fought together against overwhelming odds. The USS Houston and HMAS Perth still lie together at the bottom of Bantam Harbor, where they went down fighting together off Java against a force four or five times their number. HMAS Canberra similarly still rests beside her sister American cruisers at the bottom of "iron-bottom" sound, following the fierce battles for control of the waters around Guadalcanal.

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And we have just celebrated the 59^th anniversary of the battle of the Coral Sea, where HMAS Australia and HMAS Hobart joined forces with the USS Lexington and Yorktown to turn back enemy naval thrusts, for the first time, in the Pacific war. The presence of American ships this evening in Sydney harbor reminds us again of the long history of our friendship and our continuing commitment to work together.

But these battles were not about ships - - no more than alliances are made of paper. They were about people. They were about Australians and Americans standing together, on the Kokoda Trail, at Gona, at Milne Bay, and throughout the Pacific War, until peace was restored. These battles were about individuals, such as the Australian coastwatcher, Reg Evans, who rescued Navy Lieutenant John Kennedy and ten of his shipmates when PT 109 was sunk off the Solomon Islands.

Much has changed since those daunting days. But Australian and American Forces have nonetheless found themselves called all too often again to join together during the Cold War and thereafter.

In Korea, Australian soldiers and sailors answered the UN call to stop aggression, alongside their American colleagues. To cite just one example of their unparalleled valor, the Third Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment turned back a ferocious assault at Kapyong (cap YONG) in 1951, and was awarded the U.S. Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation.

In Vietnam, we found ourselves together once more, where Australian troops were awarded another Presidential Citation for extraordinary heroism against overwhelming odds at the battle of Long Tan in 1966.

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Somalia and the Gulf War found Australian and American forces alongside one another yet again. And, now, as General Peter Gration's presence here this evening reminds us, we are together once more in East Timor, where U.S. forces have supported Australia's magnificent contribution in taking the lead in the international campaign to bring peace to that emerging new nation.

We stand at the beginning of our new Millennium - and we hear questions raised about the Alliance and the future - WWI was a war to end all wars. WWII was to herald a new world peace. It didn't happen - we ignore history at our peril.

Those who question the relevance of the ANZUS Alliance need to ask themselves some fundamental questions before drawing sweeping and simplistic conclusions. First, they need to ask whether there are still groups in this region and elsewhere who see our shared values as a threat to their aims? Are there those, who oppose the concept of governments as servants of the people, rather than the reverse? Are there those who regard individual human rights, such as the freedom to worship as one chooses or read a free press, as a threat to their goals? Are there still people in this world who see strife and chaos to be in their interest, and who can rationalize any means, no matter how violent, to justify their hold on power?

It seems to me that these questions answer themselves. Challenges to our values and our way of life indeed endure. Australian interests and U.S. interests, simply put, are served by an international order in which peoples determine their own destinies, trade and investment flow in directions that enhance overall human welfare, human rights are respected, and in which peace is the prevailing condition. Regrettably, not everyone in today's world agrees with us.

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I am confident our alliance, tested and strengthened over much of the last century will continue to be vital in promoting peace and prosperity for our two countries. Our peoples are peace loving. We have only gone to war when pushed to necessity. We maintain our strength to protect our common values and principles. We will continue to do so and together we will be stronger than ever we could be alone.

We Americans are proud to call Australians friends and allies.

In conclusion, let me say that I am confident our alliance, tested and strengthened over five decades, will continue to promote the peace and security that will ensure our shared values endure and prosper in the years to come. After all, our Alliance calls on us (and I quote) "... to act to meet the common danger..." in the event of threats to our forces or territories in the Asia Pacific region. We have shown in the past that we were prepared to act together. I am confident we will do so in the future as well.

Thank you very much.

I would now like to invite Senator Enzi, as the official representative of the United States Senate here this evening, to make some remarks.

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