Prime Minister Julia Gillard inspects honor guard at the Malaysian prime minister's office in Putrajaya. Picture:AFP. Source: AFP Phillip Hudson - Herald Sun - November 02, 2010
MALAYSIA has agreed to have further talks about Prime Minister Julia Gillard's East Timor solution for asylum seekers, but has raised questions about who will pay for it and what implications it will have across the Asia-Pacific region.
The PM also revealed her plan would require all countries that signed up to it to have the same processing rules - so asylum seekers could not hop from country to country trying to get a better deal.
Ms Gillard has used her five-day Asia tour to lobby regional leaders and the UN to support the plan to build the regional processing centre in East Timor.
Today she will hold talks about the issue in Indonesia.
Ms Gillard was given a colourful welcome to the Malaysian capital yesterday.
Accompanied by partner Tim Mathieson, the PM was greeted by a military band and a guard of honour.
She met Malaysia's Deputy PM Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was forced to pull out at the last minute with suspected chickenpox.
Asylum seekers have been using Malaysia as a stop on their way to Australia.
Mr Muhyiddin said his country had recently made people-smuggling a crime.
He raised the East Timor plan during the meeting, but stopped short of endorsing it.
"We need more information because there's a lot of implications. Malaysia would like to see how we could be involved in this exercise," he said.
"We want to see how this mechanism can work and whether the respective parties involved will need to be contributing to the cost of the centres. So there are a few outstanding matters that need to be addressed."
Ms Gillard agreed to share information with Malaysia because she said the "foundation stone" of her plan was that all asylum seekers should face the same processing rules in any country. "My vision here is regional processing framework. People would face the same processing and outcomes."
Ms Gillard said who pays was still being worked out.
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