ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well it's wonderful to be here in Jakarta for my first visit here as Prime Minister, but my sixth official visit to Indonesia. Australia and Indonesia are great friends, and I look forward to meeting with President Jokowi tomorrow. And to ensure that this friendship is strengthened, we have an important economic relationship. President Widodo has been a great friend of Australia. We welcomed him to our Parliament just a short period of time ago. My first visit as Labor Leader was to Indonesia and I wanted to make sure that my first bilateral visit was here to Indonesia. I look forward to the discussions with President Widodo about strengthening our economic relationship, about acting on climate change, about foreign aid, about increasing our people-to-people relations going forward.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister it's a rite of passage for new Australian Prime Ministers to make their first trip to Jakarta. Often it's seen as symbolic. What are you hoping to get out of this trip beyond symbolism?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is more than symbolic. This is a friendship which is deep. Australia's supported Indonesian independence in 1945. My party has had a particularly strong relationship with Indonesia, through Gough Whitlam through Bob Hawke through Paul Keating, through Kevin Rudd, and Julia Gillard. And I look forward to strengthening the relationship, which is here. There are important issues for us to discuss going forward. And I think it is, it is significant that I brought with me the Foreign Minister, the Trade Minister, the Industry Minister, here as part of the delegation, but also we have serious business leaders from Australia here because they want to deepen the economic ties between Australia and Indonesia. And we'll have an important business dinner tomorrow night, as well. We'll also visit Makassar. Makassar, of course has a history of trade, with Australia going back hundreds of years back at least to the 18th century. And that is why those relationships between Indonesia and Australia are so important. And I look forward to visiting not just to Jakarta but eastern Indonesia as well.
JOURNALIST: Where would you like to see the relationship between Australia and Indonesia going in a way that your predecessors didn't necessarily take that relationship?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, we want to strengthen the relationship with Indonesia, but also with Southeast Asia. We see that as ASEAN is central to the region, and that's why I'll be meeting with the Secretary General tomorrow as well. In recent times, I think there shows that there's a need for us to strengthen that relationship. President Widodo and I have met before. I really look forward to constructive discussions over the next couple of days. Thank you very much.