Thank you Prime Minister Sonexay for co-chairing this fourth annual ASEAN-Australia Summit.
I congratulate Laos for its leadership of ASEAN this year and for building an agenda focused on strengthening the region’s connectivity and resilience.
I also thank Laos for its guidance and support as our ASEAN Country Coordinator over the past three years.
And I thank Indonesia for being Australia’s new ASEAN Country Coordinator.
The special summit we held in Melbourne earlier this year celebrated 50 years of Australia’s dialogue partnership with ASEAN.
That’s a proud milestone for our nation – but the focus of that gathering was the future.
The future of this region we call home – and the future role and responsibility of ASEAN and of Australia in shaping a stable and prosperous region for decades to come.
Australia is committed to working with all of you to ensure ASEAN remains at the centre of a dynamic region where stability is secured through collective responsibility and prosperity is built by shared opportunity.
Where the sovereignty of every nation is respected and where all of us work together to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of the decades ahead.
For Australia, deeper economic engagement with Southeast Asia is critical to this.
My Government is working to turn potential and possibility into partnership and prosperity.
In Jakarta last year, I launched Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.
A blueprint developed by our Special Envoy to Southeast Asia, Nicholas Moore.
A plan we are putting into action – and we’ll be focusing on specific milestones at the event I am hosting for Australian and ASEAN businesses tomorrow.
This is about Australian businesses making new partnerships in Southeast Asia to drive a new generation of jobs, trade and investment.
Getting this right will benefit the businesses and citizens of every nation represented here.
Because a fundamental principle of the ASEAN-Australia partnership is mutual benefit and we all gain from a regional economy that is more resilient and more connected.
Just as we all prosper from the peace, stability and security that enables the free exchange of ideas, culture, technology and the strengthening of bonds in business, education and tourism.
And we all benefit from a region where we have the confidence and trust in each other, to tackle the challenges that confront us – from climate change and maritime security, to transnational crime and the digital transformation.
Australia holds ASEAN in high regard – as do I.
I thank you for your commitment to our partnership.
I look forward to the progress we will make in our discussions.