MINISTER FOR DEFENCE RETURNS FROM SUCCESSFUL VISIT TO UNITED STATES

The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Stephen Smith MP, have returned from a visit to the United States.  Minister Fitzgibbon and Minister Smith jointly led the Australian delegation for the annual Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations – AUSMIN – held in Washington, DC, on 9 April 2009.

“AUSMIN was an important opportunity to discuss security issues of mutual concern in Afghanistan, importantly, but also in the Asia-Pacific region,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

At AUSMIN, Minister Fitzgibbon and Secretary of Defense, Mr Robert Gates, welcomed progress on a range of enhanced defence cooperation initiatives and agreed on principles to enhance our intelligence collaboration and cooperation on cyber security, and a statement of principles concerning an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance partnership.

During his visit, Mr Fitzgibbon also met with General David Petraeus at the Pentagon, and discussed the strategy for defeating the insurgency in Afghanistan.

“The Australian Government will not step back from its commitment to playing a role in the stabilisation of Afghanistan,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Mr Fitzgibbon also met with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mr Leon E. Panetta, and the Deputy Director of the CIA, Mr Stephen Kappes.

“I welcome the opportunity to engage directly with US officials, about the common challenges we are facing and the need to ensure that we align our strategies and polices in support of our mutual interests,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Mr Fitzgibbon also travelled to Philadelphia and New York, following AUSMIN, for visits with important defence industry partners.

“In my meetings with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, I emphasised the Australian Government’s commitment to achieving good commercial outcomes from our industry partners, so that the Australian Defence Force gets the capabilities it needs, on-time and on-budget,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.

Media contacts:

Jack Smith (Joel Fitzgibbon):                              02 6277 7800 or 0408 116 423

Defence Media Liaison:                                       02 6265 3343 or 0408 498 664