PRIME MINISTER, ALBANESE: Prime Minister Rabuka, it is an honour to host you today. And it is wonderful that you have brought Suluweti here as well and your delegation, you’re all very welcome. You welcomed me so warmly to Nadi earlier this year. And it is my pleasure to return the hospitality.
PRIME MINISTER, RABUKA: Do they know what you, what you did the day before, the day before, you called me.
PRIME MINISTER, ALBANESE: Indeed, 'I'm on my way, can we do this?' And we did. And it was such a wonderful welcome, because I wanted to personally congratulate you on your election as Prime Minister, and to make sure that I was the first engagement is very important.
PRIME MINISTER, RABUKA: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER, ALBANESE: We are such very close friends. I just spoke to the Prime Minister in our one-on-one discussion as well. And Australia appreciates that Fiji Airways flew 13 Australian, along with Fijians and others, out of Tel Aviv this week. And Australia was able to assist 30 Fijians on a commercial flight on Sunday.
PRIME MINISTER, RABUKA: Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER, ALBANESE: That is very important. And Australia recognises the significant contributions that Fijian peace keepers make in the Middle East. And you yourself, of course, Prime Minister, have a proud history as well. And we hope that everyone is able to remain safe. I do want to get it out of the way very early on, Prime Minister, and congratulate you on your victory over Australia in the rugby. It was an historic victory for you to make the quarterfinals and almost get there in the quarterfinals as well with a last minute, not successful, unfortunately, but it was an extraordinary effort for you to get there. And it was your first defeat of the Wallabies -
PRIME MINISTER, RABUKA: I was worried about the match between Fiji and Australia. I thought my visit here would have been jeopardised. So, thank you very much for going ahead with the trip.
PRIME MINISTER, ALBANESE: As the Prime Minister of Australia, I was very much cheering, of course, for our Wallabies. But at the same time, I think all Australians, including the Australian Rugby Union, if we were going to be defeated by anyone, being defeated, the spirit in which we engage is very important. I think since your election, the ties between our two governments have been very strong at leader level. We have had a number of discussions, but also at ministerial level as well. We've had visits from at least for least four of our Ministers, our Foreign Minister, our Climate Change and Energy Minister, our Finance Minister and the Assistant Treasurer have all been able to visit Fiji. Ours is a partnership of equals. One in which we are both part of the Pacific family. And I have already discussed with you the importance of the Pacific Island Forum coming up next month in the Cook Islands in which we can renew the work we're doing as a Pacific family on ensuring security in our region, ensuring action on climate change, and ensuring, as well, economic prosperity in our region as well. And our partnership and engagement is so important.
So, I do want to very much acknowledge your leadership that you've shown. At the time of your election as Prime Minister of Fiji, since then, we have seen the Pacific Island Forum strengthened and come back in a spirit of unity. And you have played an essential role in that. I want to thank you, as well, for the support that you expressed for Australia and what we're doing on our AUKUS arrangements and for the work that we're doing in the region on the energy transition that's so important to tackle climate change.
I look forward to the discussion that we have today and I'm particularly looking forward to hosting you this evening at The Lodge, my residence here in Canberra, as well. So, you are very welcome, my friend. And I give you credit as well for the weather outside. It was not a very good day here a couple of days ago in Canberra. And today is a glorious day, reflecting every time I have been to Fiji, it's always been glorious weather just like this. So, you're very welcome here, sir.
PRIME MINISTER, RABUKA: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for mentioning our ability to have brought home some Australians with ours. But you brought back more of ours from Israel than we did of yours. Also thank you for the mention of the Kiribati trip and President Maamau received me very well. And I recognise the seat I sat on coming from Sydney to here and the Royal Australian Air Force flight the same one that the Prime Minister gave me to go to Tarawa. Thank you very much that. Yes, I was so happy to have been able to bring President Maamau back and since then, our relationships have been good. To me it brings home the importance of human-to-human relationship, take away all the politics or frailties of human decisions.
But for us in the Pacific the Vuvale concept. And you have a lot to play in that, encourages us to think Vuvale, think family, as we move forward. And the result of the rugby, as I mentioned to Honourable Pat the other day, thank you very much for the work done, particularly with our Drua team in the Super Rugby competition. They have a different approach to the test matches. I'm very happy to see them performing in France as opposed to those that are exposed to club rugby in the northern hemisphere. Those who came through Drua still have that camaraderie and teamwork. They showed it on the field. And thank you for allowing us to get to the quarters. I think you neglected the other one. The other ones you should have won, very, very well. But yes, we owe a lot of our rugby prowess as to the contact we've had with Australia. I remember the last time when Fiji beat Australia, 69 years ago, it was an attempt by the Australian Rugby Union at the time to revive rugby union. Because it was a time when the coal miners were not interested in rugby, they were going to League, and League was growing, and they were getting paid, and amateur rugby stood to lose a lot of ground. And Fiji rugby team, two of the players who came here for those tests, were withdrawn from the battalion in Malaya, played in trials, came here with the team and went back into action in Malaya. So, yes, now we are benefiting from exposure to the Super Rugby competition. And we thank you for repatriating some of our own citizens who we're left behind. All those that went on our charter flight came back on the charter flight. Those that went on their own were the ones that were left behind without our knowledge and you have brought them home. So, thank you very much for that. And we thank you for the labour mobility scheme.