ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's good to be here in Vientiane for the important regional summits with ASEAN. We're always better when we work together with our close friends and partners. And we know that ASEAN, of course, has an important relationship with Australia. We have our Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 that was developed by Nicholas Moore, and he, together with other business leaders such as Christine Holgate, will be participating this week as well. Stability, peace and future prosperity cannot be taken for granted. We need to work for them, and that means working with our partners. Now, just earlier on today, Premier Li and I had another productive and important bilateral meeting. I'm encouraged by the progress that we have made between Australia and China's relationship in producing stabilisation to the benefit of both of our nations and with the objective of advancing peace and security in the region. Premier Li, of course, I hosted in June this year, and since then we've had a series of regular meetings between ministers, including Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ visit to Beijing, including the Foreign Minister’s meeting and the climate change and energy meetings taking place, and next week, President of the Senate, Sue Lines will be leading a bipartisan Parliamentary Delegation to China. Something that hasn't happened for some time. Karen Andrews will be the deputy leader of that delegation, and it will feature Members and Senators from across the Parliament. That is a good thing, because from dialogue comes understanding. We have continued to stabilise the relationship without compromising on any of Australia's national interests. With our patient, calibrated and deliberate approach, we've restored Australian trade with our largest export market, and today we discussed restarting exports of Australian live rock lobsters. We've worked for the removal of trade impediments one by one. The Premier pointed out the quite considerable growth that has occurred in Australian exports, including wine and barley, that has grown to be larger than what was there before there were impediments to that trade. I'm pleased to announce that Premier Li and I have agreed on a timetable to resume full lobster trade by the end of this year. This, of course, will be in time for Chinese New Year, and this will be welcomed by the people engaged in the live lobster industry in places like Geraldton and South Australia and Tasmania and so many parts of, particularly, regional Australia, where this is just one of the elements that produce jobs for Australians, and that is what our priority has been. I also spoke to Premier Li about the full range of regional and international security issues, including our concerns about any destabilising actions in the South China Sea and about China's recent missile ballistic test. Our support for rules that have kept our region stable and allowed it to prosper. I also raised a range of other bilateral and other issues, including the issue of Dr Yang Jun and other consular cases. Continued dialogue provides the best pathway for Australia to advance our national interest, but also to advance peace and security in our region. So, first of the meetings following this, I'll be having meeting of what we've called CANZ – Canada, Australia and New Zealand. I look forward to those discussions with Prime Minister Trudeau and Prime Minister Luxon. And then, of course, we have the summit this afternoon, where I'll be meeting with the leaders of all of the ASEAN nations, as well as partners. Happy to take some questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in relation to the South China Sea, you've obviously expressed Australia's concerns. Without telling us exactly what the Premier said, what did from the Chinese delegation, what perspective did they bring to their activities?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, China, of course, puts forward its perspective. And I put forward Australia's, which is that UNCLOS – the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea – is important. It's important for international trade. So much international trade goes through the South China Sea, and we need to have military to military engagement and cooperation and dialogue to avoid any misadventure. And I put forward our view about the importance of those international rules being upheld.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did the Premier give any indication that he would be interested – China would be interested – in scaling back some of that aggression to keep regional stability?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, China puts forward its position and my job in these meetings – I don't go into all of the detail of it, that's how you achieve outcomes, is to be able to have that constructive dialogue. But I put Australia's position. Our position in private is the same as our position in public, which is international law must be respected, and we need to avoid incidents such as the ones that have occurred in the past.
JOURNALIST: How much economic benefit will the resumption of the lobster trade bring?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it will be substantial. The impediments to our trade added up to in excess of $20 billion. I'm quite confident that when we look at the amount of the trade for goods which had impediments there to them, whether it be agricultural products like barley. Whether it be some of our coal exports which were there. Our wine, our seafood, our meat products, that all of this combined, when we look back, will grow back to an even greater amount than they were represented at the time that impediments grew.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned (inaudible) dialogue since the Cold War, could you just clarify (inaudible).
PRIME MINISTER: Look, we are facing a period of strategic competition in our region. I think that the dialogue, as I spoke about at my Shangri-La speech last year. I spoke about the importance of having communication, in particular, military to military communication between the United States and China. One of the things that occurred after my visit to China, and also the visit that I had to the United States, was that President Xi and President Biden had the meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in San Francisco. That was really important. It was really important. What I spoke about was that during the Cold War, the Soviet Union as it was then, and the United States continued to have that mil-to-mil dialogue, and that that wasn't occurring, and it is important that there be increased dialogue. I know that President Biden has valued that increased dialogue that has occurred as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when did you become aware of the complaints coming from Richard Marles’ office, and has he handled that situation correctly?
PRIME MINISTER: I am aware of it, and I was briefed on it. The Acting Prime Minister has responded to this publicly and due to the nature of it, I don't intend to add any further comment.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the East Timor President, José Ramos-Horta, has made it clear that his country is willing to talk to China about getting the Greater Sunrise Project off the ground. How much of a concern would that be if East Timor was to go in that direction, and I gather Xanana Gusmao is at ASEAN. Would you seek him out to try and get some clarity about the country's intentions?
PRIME MINISTER: I will be having discussions with my friend, President Xanana, while I am here over next two days,
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if I can ask more broadly on the summit. Obviously there was a discussion about the Middle East conflict. In March there was a consensus regarding this. Do you think it's going to be more challenging this time, given everything that's happened in the last few months, and do you think any reference to Israel's right to respond or defend itself will be in the statement from ASEAN?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't want to pre-empt a meeting that hasn't been held yet, but I should imagine I'd be surprised if the issues of conflict in the world that are impacting this region, because of the impact in the global economy, as well as people's concern about the devastation that is occurring, will be discussed. Whether formally, with regard to a statement, there obviously hasn't been a meeting yet, so there's some way to go there, but I would be not surprised, indeed, I would expect that discussions, including the involvement of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that ongoing impact, as well as the conflict in the Middle East, will be discussed.
JOURNALIST Prime Minister on your other meetings this week, the Thai Government has previously requested to postpone or phase in new vehicle emissions caps. Is that something you're going to address in your meeting with the Thai PM?
PRIME MINISTER: No look, we have a very clear position on fuel standards, and that's something that hasn't been able to be achieved for a long period of time. Everyone knew that it had to happen. We have achieved this in spite of the rather extraordinary scare campaign attempted by the Coalition in the lead up to the Dunkley by-election. We've achieved it in a way that has produced satisfactory outcomes, lowering emissions, but also making sure that Australians can make the savings that they'll get from this. This is in the interest of Australian consumers. It's in the interest of our environment, and it's in the interests of lowering emissions as well.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you raised the test of the intercontinental ballistic missile. It caused significant concerns in the Pacific. Did you pass those on, and how do you contrast that with the Premier’s language describing you as my friend?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I discussed these issues, one of the things that I say is that we can cooperate where we can, but we'll disagree where we must. And what's important is that friends are able to have direct discussions. It doesn't imply agreement. It doesn't imply compliance, and I'll always represent Australia's national interest. That's what I did today, it was a very constructive meeting. Thanks very much.