Tony Abbott remains hopeful that delicately poised free trade agreement negotiations with Tokyo will not be derailed by Australia's win in the International Court of Justice against ''scientific'' whaling.
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Japan said it was ''deeply disappointed'' after the UN court found Japan must cease its Southern Ocean whaling program immediately, but said it would abide by the decision. The judgment was welcomed by Australia's three largest political parties and celebrated by anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd. Tokyo's agent at the court, Koji Tsuruoka, said: ''As a state that respects the rule of law, the order of international law and as a responsible member of the global community, Japan will abide by the decision of the court.''
But Mr Tsuruoka refused to discuss whether Japan would design a new research program in the hope of resuming whaling and said it would digest the complex judgment before officials would ''be able to consider what future course of action we should take''.
In a press conference in Perth on Tuesday, Mr Abbott said Australia had a ''very strong relationship'' with Japan and that it was ''certainly much, much, much bigger than any disagreement we might have had about whaling''.
ICJ president Peter Tomka said the court concluded the scientific permits granted by Japan for its whaling program were not scientific research as defined under International Whaling Commission rules. The court unanimously found it had jurisdiction to hear the case, and by 12 votes to four found that special permits granted by Japan in connection with the program, JARPA II, did not fall within the IWC convention.
Former Labor environment minister Peter Garrett, who instigated the case in 2010, welcomed the ruling. ''This is the end of so-called 'scientific' whaling, surely,'' Mr Garrett told Fairfax Media. ''It's an incredible result.''
The decision comes with the whaling fleet under increased pressure from conservationist direct action that brought serious conflict to the far south.
The whalers killed 10,439 minkes and 15 fin whales under scientific permit from the 1986 moratorium until the end of the 2013 season, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Last season's figure has not been released.
With AFP, James Massola
