AUSMIN Opening Remarks, Annapolis, Maryland

U.S SECRETARY OF STATE ANTHONY BLINKEN: Good morning everyone. It's a great pleasure, both professional and personal, to welcome Penny, and to welcome Richard, to welcome the entire team here for AUSMIN. I think we don't need much proof, but there's more evidence of it, that the United States and Australia get along swimmingly. We've seen that in Paris. We swim together. (Laughter) And here we are. 

To both of you, to everyone here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming together. For AUSMIN. We are building on Prime Minister Albanese visit in October of last year. We're building on the last AUSMIN we had where you so graciously hosted us, and we wanted to return--more than return--the favour. As the President said last October, our alliance, the alliance between Australia and United States, is an anchor to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. And not just the Indo-Pacific, globally, deepening cooperation across the pillars of our alliance, security, economic, climate, clean energy- these have been the hallmarks of the work that we've done over the last few years. On security, we're working together to advance stability, prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, and we stand together addressing threats to peace and security. We've made extraordinary progress under AUKUS as well as bilaterally, for having seamless defence cooperation and innovation between our countries, and we deeply appreciate Australia's commitments as well at the NATO summit to Ukraine's defence. Economically, Australia and the United States are some of each other's central partners. The United States is the largest foreign investor in Australia and the largest recipient of outbound FDI from Australia. This relationship is genuinely, an Innovation Alliance as our leaders stated in October. We have public and private sectors cooperating in emerging technology, from quantum to AI, we're working together to facilitate high quality infrastructure in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. And of course, we co-hosted the first Pacific Banking Forum in July in the United States, to ensure banking services in the Pacific. And finally, on climate and clean energy, we're partnering together for the clean energy transition. Our critical minerals task force is working to ensure sustainable, resilient, secure, critical minerals and clean energy, not just for us, but for the entire world. So, in these and so many other areas, our countries are bound together. But this meeting, bringing together our foreign policy and security teams is a foundational piece of this relationship. And with all the work we're doing together, we couldn't be more pleased to have you here, so welcome. We're looking forward to it.

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS SENATOR, PENNY WONG: Thank you Tony, thank you, Lloyd. It's such a great pleasure for Richard and I along with our teams to be here with you. And I start by reflecting again on our relationship with the alliance, which is about who we are, it's about what we stand for, and it's also about what we want in the world. And if you look through the agenda, we have the work that we are doing together across the different lines of effort in our partnership, it is wide and it is deep and it is being renewed over and again. Obviously, I would say we also meet today in the shadow of a deteriorating situation in the Middle East. We want to acknowledge your leadership and your work on that, the extraordinary methods, Tony were engaged in to broker peace and then to advance President Biden's ceasefire proposal. The ceasefire has been urgent for months, it's never been more urgent than it is now. That that is only one domain in which the United States and others, particularly the US, is having to show leadership. Obviously, Ukraine too, and in the Indo-Pacific. In the Indo-Pacific, the security guarantee of the United States has enabled a long period of prosperity peace that we have enjoyed, and it has never been more vital. It's never been more vital. We see this AUSMIN as another opportunity for us to together work in how we rise to the challenges for today to ensure that our alliance, our partnership, our work together, is fit for the times, delivers for our shared objectives and aspirations and for the region that we live in. We are stronger together. And at a personal level, can I say how much we appreciate our personal friendships and how much as an ally and friend, we respect and appreciate the work of both of you of this administration and the priority you have given and continue to give to alliances and partnerships. It is, it is an extraordinary achievement to date. 

U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD AUSTIN: Thanks Penny. Deputy Prime Minister Marles and Foreign Minister Wong, welcome to Annapolis. You can tell by looking at the faces of all these sailors in the room that they're delighted to be here, at what they believe is the centre of the universe. And welcome to the 34th Australia-US ministerial consultations. And it's great to be here with my friend and colleague, Secretary Blinken. Thanks to the United States Naval Academy for hosting us. You know, this is our third AUSMIN together, and each time we've made historic strides and strengthened our alliance, and I'm confident that we'll continue to deliver today, we're poised to advance our advanced major force posture initiatives. We'll take steps to deepen our defence industrial cooperation on co-development, co-production and co-sustainment, and that includes supporting Australia's guided weapons and explosive ordinance enterprise. We'll also identify new opportunities with likeminded allies and partners, including Japan, India and the Philippines.For more than a century, the United States and Australia have worked shoulder-to-shoulder. Australia remains an indispensable ally. We're working together today to tackle shared security challenges from coercive behavior by the PRC, to Russia's war of choice against Ukraine, to the turmoil in the Middle East. And I know that this year's AUSMIN will deliver results for both of our peoples. And so Richard, Penny, thanks for making the trip, and I look forward to some great discussions.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, thank you Lloyd, thank you Tony. It's great for Penny and I to be here. Great to be here at the Naval Academy. We have a new Chief of Defence Force since when we last met you, Admiral Johnston, is the first Admiral, first member of the Navy to be our Chief of Defence Force for quite some time. So, as we are experiencing a navy takeover of the Defence Force it feels particularly apt that we are here at Annapolis. This is the 34th AUSMIN- it's the third that the four of us have had the honour of being the custodians of and as we meet today, when we think about the last couple of years in which we've been working so closely together, it really has been a period of intense activity, but intense achievement. We now have a pathway forward in terms of Australia acquiring a nuclear-powered submarine capability from the United States and the United Kingdom under the banner of AUKUS, and we're making progress in terms of AUKUS Pillar Two as well. If you look at the force posture of the United States on the Australian continent, we've seen a growth in marine rotation in Darwin. We look forward in the coming years to the submarine rotational force in Perth. But in fact, that force posture lay down of the United States in Australia is across all domains, from US Army watercraft through to logistics at Bandiana. These are all decisions that we've taken in past AUSMINs, but we're actually implementing, like there's a real change. And it is a significant contribution to integrated deterrence within our region, but it's a really significant contribution to the peace of the Indo-Pacific. We're working more closely together in our industrial bases- the legislation that went through the Congress last year, which was complemented by the legislation went through our parliament in March of this year, has transformed the seamless ecosystem between our two defence industrial bases, which are now yielding real dividends in guided weapons, for example. And we are seeing a blossoming of relationships within the Indo-Pacific: trilaterals between ourselves and Japan, the work that you've been doing with Japan and Korea, and what that has unlocked in terms of the ability for us to work with those countries as well, and all of that is giving rise to a much safer region. I really want to echo the point that Penny made: As a global power, you've got so much on your plate. We look to your leadership in the Middle East. We very much look to your leadership in Ukraine, but we could not be happier with the extent of your presence in the Indo-Pacific. It's been wonderful- genuinely wonderful- and for that, we thank you. But it needs to be the case because we are living in a difficult and fraught world where your alliances with the countries in the Indo-Pacific--like Korea and like Japan, but of course, your alliance with us is completely central to our worldview, to our national security. But we really want to thank you for making those alliances the heart of the way in which you've been going about positioning America and the world. It really is what differentiates the US from everyone else. We are very much pleased and proud to be a partner in that, and we look forward to the discussions today.