Australia to launch legal action against Japanese whaling
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Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Friday morning the government would lodge a formal application to stop Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters in the International Court of Justice in The Hague next week.
"Australia will initiate action in the International Court of Justice, seeking to prevent Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean, " Smith told reporters in Sydney as reported by the Australian Associated Press.
Smith said he spoke to his counterpart in Japan before the announcement and both of them agreed the case would not disturb the country's international relationship.
Federal Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett joined Smith for the announcement in Sydney and said Japan's so-called " scientific" whaling program must end.
"We want to see an end to whales being killed in the name of science in the Southern Ocean," Garrett told reporters.
Smith was resolute that both countries had agreed to quarantine the legal action from the international relationship with Japan.
"The agreement between Australia and Japan is that we will treat this matter in a calm, responsible and mature way," he said.
"Both nations adhere to the jurisdiction of International Court of Justice and we will treat this matter effectively as an independent legal arbitration of a disagreement between friends."
"We have said consistently that if we came to the conclusion that our objectives could not be met by diplomatic means, whether bilateral or multilateral diplomatic efforts through the IWC ( International Whaling Commission), then we always reserved the right to initiate legal proceedings and that's what we've announced today."
The federal government had promised to do this before the last election, but had recently deferred action until November 2010 at the earliest. Japan is one of Australia's biggest trading partners.
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