ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Australia's attendance at the ASEAN-Australian Summit that we've just held, and the East Asia Summit, is a reaffirmation of Australia's unwavering support for ASEAN’s centrality, the ASEAN-led architecture and ASEAN outlook for the Indo-Pacific. Australia is proud to be ASEAN's oldest dialogue partner and its comprehensive strategic partner. We will celebrate 50 years of that partnership in 2024, and the ASEAN members are keen to visit Australia at that time. We have suggested us hosting the ASEAN-Australia Summit in Australia to commemorate that 50 years. As a country, Australia seeks to engage with ASEAN and the East Asia Summit with respect, with trust and with honesty. And I seek to do that through listing and speaking with other leaders at this summit. I was delighted that at the Summit we reiterated our commitment to deepening engagement with South East Asia. It was a major part of our foreign policy at the election in May, and we advocated then that we would have an envoy for South East Asia to implement the development of our South East Asian Economic Strategy to 2040, to set out a pathway to strengthen Australia's economic engagement with the region. And I'm absolutely delighted to announce today that Nicholas Moore has agreed to be that envoy. Nick Moore is someone one who is well known to me due to my background as Infrastructure Minister. He is someone who is one of Australia's leading business people. He has experience in the region. During his time at Macquarie Bank he was engaged in Indonesia, throughout ASEAN, and its footprint is well known and it's a well-respected organisation. Indeed, one of the Australian success stories has been that Macquarie Bank has a lot bigger footprint outside of Australia than it does in Australia. I thank Nicholas Moore, who I spoke with again this morning. I personally thank him for agreeing to do this. He will bring a great deal of respect to the role, and it's a part of my government's determination to reach out to leaders in the business community to ensure that we have business and the private sector as well as government doing what we can to promote Australia's national interest. This morning, I had a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, our host here at this event. I also met with the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, talking about the ongoing struggle of the Ukrainian people to uphold sovereignty and to uphold the international rule of law. It is important that we continue to provide that support to the people of Ukraine, and it was good to meet once again with him here today. Tomorrow, or later this afternoon, I'll be meeting with the Prime Minister of Vietnam, the Prime Minister of Laos. In addition to that, there have been a range of pull-asides that will occur. Once again, I enjoyed a conversation with Prime Minister Kishida of Japan. We've now met every single month, I think, since I've been in office. That's a good thing. This is a chance for us to build relationships in our region so early in the term of the new Government. I'm very pleased that it's so constructive and the dialogue is so positive.
JOURNALIST: Is there any update on the possibility of you meeting with the Chinese President? And can you give us your reflections on the importance of the meeting that will go ahead between President Biden and President Xi and what you'd like to see come of that?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would make the point about President Biden and President Xi meeting that dialogue between people is always positive. Out of dialogue comes understanding and we need more, not less, in today's uncertain world. We know this strategic competition in this region and that's the context of any meeting that will take place between the United States and China. We are awaiting any finalisation of any meeting. One is not locked in at this point. But I continue to say that dialogue is a good thing. We've had the Foreign Ministers of Australia and China as well as the Defence Ministers had a meeting. If the leaders of our respective countries have a meeting then that would be positive. There are no preconditions for a meeting. I look forward to having a constructive dialogue if a meeting takes place. I've always said that we will cooperate with China where we can.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, could the Chinese Government be leading us on in terms of the chances of this meeting, or is there a reasonable chance? And what would be your message to President Xi if it occurs?
PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's a constructive thing if a meeting takes place. It is the nature of these events, that meetings get locked in often at the last minute. Immediately after this, I'm meeting with the Prime Minister of Vietnam. That's a meeting that should be happening now, but meetings tend to run over time. Look, I take it at face value. I think there is a great deal of goodwill here, certainly from a Australia. And I have no reason to think that there's not goodwill on the Chinese side as well.
JOURNALIST: Russia tends to whip up concerns about the Quad and AUKUS destabilising the region during bilateral meetings with foreign leaders. How will Australia account for that narrative? And how do you reassure ASEAN countries that these briefings aren’t undermining ASEAN?
PRIME MINISTER: We call out Russia's behaviour and we'll continue to do so. Russia's involvement in the military conflict in Ukraine is a breach of international law. It's one that is in breach of the UN Charter and it's one that has had direct economic consequences for the global economy. But as well, this morning I expressed my condolences to the Foreign Minister of Ukraine because of the human cost that's occurring as a result of this aggression. So, we'll continue to call out that behaviour. I note that at the summit that we just held, the ASEAN Australia Summit, it was called out by a number of leaders as well.
JOURNALIST: In your opening remarks at the summit you said that there was an urgent task to uphold the ideals peace and freedom in a complex and changing world. How do we do that? And what is your view with driving that urgency?
PRIME MINISTER: We do that by building up trust. I note the comments of President Widodo, that I think were very prescient in his opening remarks as well, where he spoke about building trust as the basis for understanding. And that is one of the things that happens at a summit like this is bringing people together. Building those people to people relations is very important. And I did take note and mentioned in my response to President Widodo about his comments that I thought were on the mark.
JOURNALIST: The European Union and the UK have signalled also at Bali that they're going to make a concerted effort to isolate and eventually snub Russia’s Foreign Minister. Will Australia be a part of that effort?
PRIME MINISTER: I'm focused on the East Asia Summit tomorrow. We will engage constructively in the G20, but I certainly won't be seeking out any meetings with the Russian Foreign Minister. And certainly, yesterday's revelations as well that some of the cyber-attacks that have occurred in Australia have originated in Russia are a wake-up call that Russia has a responsibility to stop criminal activity that's having a real impact on people in Australia and indeed around the globe.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: There's no doubt that I will be having a chat at with President Biden while we are here and then at the G20. We haven't locked in a bilateral meeting at this point in time. We await whether that happens or not. But President Biden and I have a relationship. We will be able to have a chat, there's no question about that, as we did in London the last time and as we did previously as well in Madrid.
JOURNALIST: On the issue of Myanmar, that is clearly something that is overshadowing this summit of South East Asian Nations. Australia has been criticised for not joining in international sanctions in this space. Is Australia out of touch with our sanctions on the regime?
PRIME MINISTER: We have taken a range of actions against Myanmar in Australia's national interest. And we have also, at this summit, raised the issue of Sean Turnell. And I note the support that that has received from Prime Minister Hun Sen and also Prime Minister Lee in the comments as well.