Joint Press Conference, Darwin

SUBJECTS: Australia-Philippines Defence Relationship; Pitch Black; Submarine Rotational Force - West

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Welcome everyone, and it's fantastic to be here with the Secretary of National Defense from the Philippines, my good friend Gilberto Teodoro. As I said earlier, in meeting here in Darwin, we're roughly halfway between Canberra and Manila, which is just a bit of a reminder about how close we are to the Philippines and the fact that our two countries are very much neighbours. And as we met today, we spoke about, as neighbours, our shared commitment to the global rules-based order and its application in our region, in the Indo-Pacific, but particularly in the South China Sea, the West Philippine Sea, and we very much stand with the Philippines in the assertion of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and international law in those bodies of water. Today we have the final day of Exercise Pitch Black. The Philippines has been participating in this. Gilberto went and saw the launching of the last night (inaudiable), which included four FA-50s of the Philippines Air Force. But the Armed Forces of the Philippines have also just concluded Exercise Carabaroo, which was undertaken outside of Townsville over the last few weeks. These two exercises are respectively the largest land and the largest air deployment that the Philippines has made abroad this year, and of course earlier this year, the Philippines contributed to Exercise Kakadu, which is our largest naval exercise. And so, across the three domains, we've seen a very significant presence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines here in Australia. And next year we will be in the Philippines participating in Exercise Alon 2027. It will be the largest exercise that Australia undertakes outside of our country next year, and just as the other iterations of Exercise Alon have seen it grow in breadth and complexity. As we spoke about it today, we are really confident that next year's Exercise Alon will do the same. And all of this is an expression of how closely our two defence forces are working together. We have previously spoken about very significant work that we are doing in terms of building infrastructure on bases in the Philippines. That work is going at a pace right now. There are eight projects underway across five bases in the Philippines, and we will continue with this infrastructure work. What that is doing is building the capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but it is also underpinning a much greater Australian presence in the Philippines, which we deeply, deeply appreciate. And finally, we have continued work on the defence cooperation arrangement between our two countries. Again, we've spoken about this in the past as well, but we are working on an arrangement which will be transformative in terms of the defence relationship, really the bilateral relationship between our two countries. And in this, the 80th anniversary of our bilateral relations, we are really confident that we will be able to conclude and sign the defence cooperation arrangement later this year. So, Gilberto, thank you for being here. We've really very much enjoyed the very substantive conversations we've had today. As I said earlier, you are a very welcome guest here in Australia.

GILBERTO TEODORO, PHILIPPINES SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE: Thank you very much. I'd like to thank, from the bottom of all our hearts, the Philippines, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the people of Australia, for being shoulder to shoulder with us in upholding free and open Indo-Pacific and rules-based global order. The exercise of our discussions today was twofold. Number one is to review the progress we've made, which I can say without exaggeration has been substantial, and to map out areas of potential convergence to make sure that what we are doing is sustainable and can be increased more. We look forward also to the signing of the other arrangements that we need. The Defense Cooperation Agreement, and the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned the three domains we are working in. We need an information-sharing and secrecy agreement, so we can work very closely on the cyber domain, which is all-important, and which we hope to derive best practices, lessons, and experiences from a mature system that Australia has. We also work together to strengthen our multilateral arrangements, and the exercise reviewed last night was an exercise of utmost complexity, where we needed coordination to the microsecond, and to see the progress we have done in this domain, of course the air domain, but also in other domains where you're working together that closely, and we are also very proud to have had the first Filipino fighter pilot to be qualified as a force commander, leading a force of 40 fighter aircraft, and thanks to the enhancements we have made to our current systems, this has enabled us to take such a role. Nonetheless, the exercise yesterday impresses upon us the need really to work shoulder to shoulder closely, alignment in interoperability, and of course underscored by the general values which uphold international law and UNCLOS. And we thank the people of Australia, Deputy Prime Minister, for the unconditional support given the Philippines in fighting for its rights in its maritime domain as well as other domains. The security of the Philippines is vital to Australia, and likewise. We must also remember that these defence arrangements are foundational to provide sustainability in all other arrangements, whether economic and trade and otherwise, and all-important security. And we will work our level best on the Philippine side, (inaudible), to the commitments of all our partners, and we value very greatly the full commitment of Australia to our bilateral and multilateral engagements. So, from henceforth, we will see more next year, and as the years go by, we will see more and more gradual engagements, and in a more seamless manner. Thank you very much.

MARLES: Thank you. So we'll go to questions, and we might alternate between the two press contingents. So start with the first question from the Philippines.

JOURNALIST: Good morning, Secretary and Minister. Last year, both the governments have signed a statement of intent and said that they would seek to conclude, as you've mentioned also, sir, the Philippines-Australia Defence Cooperation Agreement later this year. Can you give us an update? What are the salient points of this agreement, and what issues remain to be solved from both of you?

MARLES: Well, again, we've made really good progress on the Defence Cooperation Arrangement today, as we have at our previous meetings. So we're really confident that we will be concluding this in a position to sign it later this year. That's the first point I'd really like to make. We do think that this is an arrangement which will help transform the relationship between our two countries, which will speak to our commitment to each other, but which will also speak to the very significant defence cooperation that we have. And as we've described today, what we're doing in terms of maritime cooperation activities, what we're doing in terms of defence exercises, what we're doing in terms of defence infrastructure are all really important steps that we're taking in respect of our relationship, and the arrangement will look at all of that.

TEODORO: The importance of this defence cooperation agreement is to provide the mechanisms for working together in a smoother and more seamless manner, it deals with governmental processes that we need really to make more adaptive, responsive, and more agile. The defence cooperation agreement, in all its subjects, has the end in view of us being able to work together within our SOFA, faster, more flexible, more adaptable, and in a broader area within the general context, as we see, comes out because the process comes from down, the activities stem, it's flexed through these mechanisms into more institutional arrangements, so that provides the bridge between the policy side and the application side.

JOURNALIST: Yeah, just for both of you, if that's okay? How is it going to change the defence relationship, and will there be any sort of rotational Australian military presence in the Philippines under it, and just on another topic to Minister Marles on a separate issue, you say the U.S. submarine presence in Western Australia will be rotational. Tell us then how long will the rotations of individual submarines be, and how long will these rotations be for individual personnel and their families, months or years?

TEODORO: On the rotational presence, that will depend on the activities that are conducted every year. Presence is a function of what we're doing, and we will have to take it from there. And that will be an operational matter, which are for our force commanders to design under the ambit of that defence cooperation agreement. So, on the other question.

MARLES: I mean, firstly, I think that is the perfect answer in terms of our engagement with the Philippines. And the only thing I'd add is that what you're seeing is us working more closely together. And actually, I think Exercise Alon is a really good example of that. It will be our largest exercise outside of Australia next year, as it has been in each of the last two iterations that has occurred, and it does speak to the growth of that defence relationship, as does the work that we're doing in terms of infrastructure. But as Gilberto said, it's ultimately a function of what operations are occurring. In some ways, it's kind of the answer to the second question too. The Submarine Rotation Force – West and the duration of those rotations is going to be a function of the operational requirements of the U.S. submarines, and that is going to vary from, you know, potentially from submarine to submarine. So in that sense, it's not quite as fixed as, say, the Marine Rotation Force Darwin, which is obviously linked with the time of the year when those activities can be undertaken. So it is a rotation presence at HMAS Stirling, but those rotations are a function of the operations which will be undertaken by the submarines.

TEODORO: Richard, could I just add a little bit to the question? There's another topic which we work on very closely, which has not been mentioned, that is in humanitarian assistance and disaster response. And I've learned yesterday forest fires are a concern in Australia. You've developed some expertise. It is beginning to be a big concern in the northern Philippines, and perhaps that is one area where we really need to exchange notes and to try to work together.

JOURNALIST: Deputy Minister, I'd like to get your perspective on the Philippine government's transparency policy regarding the West Philippine Sea or the South China Sea, where it invites members of the media to join its patrols. How do you view this policy, and do you think other countries should adopt a similar approach to counter China's narrative and its persistent claims over the area, despite the 2016 UN official tribunal ruling in favour of the Philippines?

MARLES: Well, look, I'll let the commentary on the Filipino policy to Secretary Teodoro, but what I would say is this: we are both countries which are very committed to the global rules-based order, to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to the way in which that is applied. And it is important that we have a sense of what is happening out there, and the adherence of nations to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and so in terms of, it is important to be able to demonstrate our adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, but it's also important to demonstrate what is happening. You're right to point out that this is the 10th anniversary of the arbitral ruling. That was a very significant ruling. We regard it as having meaning. It's a ruling that was made in the context of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. And at the end of the day, you know, what we fundamentally share as two nations is a belief that this is what needs to be applied, and that how we understand sovereignty and how we understand sovereignty in respect of waters is defined by international law. It's defined by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and we have two countries which stand for that.

JOURNALIST: Secretary, do you want to institutionalise this policy so that goes beyond this administration?

TEODORO: Let me backtrack. Transparency is fundamental to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and all processes under that convention are made under a framework of transparency. For example, proceedings before the United Nations, which we just did when we filed our charts, and transparency is fundamental to good governance. And if you want to have a rules-based order, you want governance and you want transparency. Transparency too, because we have democratic constituencies who have a right to know, and who, at the end of the day, will give us their opinion as to where we're going. And so far, 86% of our people have supported what we are doing, and this is precisely because of transparency. And we have made plain to them the stakes involved, not only for them but for future generations. So, being non-transparent, opaque, or even probably working in a concealed manner is anathema to what we are doing. When we take as a framework international law, UNCLOS, and other generally accepted principles, we cannot work with each other if we're not transparent, because credibility of each and every one of us is very important.

JOURNALIST: Given the 2,300 US troops that will enter HMAS Stirling, is this really the establishment of a US military base, rather than just rotation?

MARLES: It's the establishment of a rotation, that is the Submarine Rotation Force – West. To be clear, it's not. It's 1,200 personnel. There are civilians, contractors, families, which make up the larger number, but it's 1,200 personnel. This is not a concept that we're unfamiliar with. In this town, we have the Marine Rotation Force Darwin, which has been in place since 2011. What is fundamental to it is that we are talking about a rotation of personnel that come through here, and that's what we will be talking about at HMAS Stirling. Now, that's what is in common between the two rotations. There will be differences in answer to the earlier question that the duration of the rotation in respect of the Submarine Rotation Force –West is going to be more a function of the operational deployments of the particular submarines and obviously the crews that go with them. But at its heart, this is a rotational presence, and that is the basis on which this is being established. And I'd also say it is being established in the context with the very strong sovereignty arrangements that we have in place for the presence of American forces on the Australian continent, but for that matter, any forces on the Australian continent. I mean, Singapore, for example, has a significant presence in Australia as well, and all of that operates under very strong sovereignty arrangements, which provide full knowledge and concurrence, and that's what's going to apply at HMAS Stirling as well.

JOURNALIST: Can you, can I have a quick local question for the secretary?

TEODORO: Let's take local questions later.

JOURNALIST: Just on the Pitch Black exercise, especially the performance of the Philippines.

TEODORO: Actually, I was genuinely proud and amazed, and it was an eye-opener to see how complicated an exercise it is. You have 80 supersonic aircraft in the air in pitch black, total darkness at one time. So for 90 minutes, each one engages very, very quickly in varied scenarios. That is absolutely inspiring, it's, you know, it's awesome, so to speak, and it's humbling. But what's also there is the importance of those on the ground and those who brought our people here. So it's a whole ecosystem that needs to work together, not merely the participation of one, but the crucial participation of all, or else you have an accident, or you have a fatality. And for us to work on the microsecond level, it is really something that each and every Filipino should be proud of.

MARLES: It is genuinely an amazing thing to see. It's, it's an incredible exercise. I think it's four FA-50s. But to what goes to Gilberto's point, there are 200 Filipino personnel who are here as part of that. So, you know, the planes are the tip of the spear, but there is a lot of work which goes to enabling that to be present, and the exercise in its totality has about 2,500 people participating, 1,000 of which are Australians. So the Filipino contingent, to those who have come here from overseas, is really significant. This is the second time the Philippines has been present. We couldn't be more pleased with the way in which the Philippines have participated, but also more impressed with their ability and skill.

JOURNALIST: So obviously this is an Australian-Filipino-focused relationship and meeting, but with everything that's going on in the Indo-Pacific and how there's many friendly partners also operating there, is there a requirement for both of you to brief fellow-friendly neighbours such as Japan and Korea on what you two gentlemen are going forward with and what you plan?

MARLES: Well, I mean, so firstly, at a bilateral level, we are, as you rightly say, focused, and our relationship is really at a high-water mark. And actually, as we've kind of looked at all that we've done over the last couple of years, it genuinely is amazing in terms of how the relationship has grown and where it is going, but we absolutely engage within a more multilateral context. I mean, you mentioned like Japan, for example. Both of us have engaged deeply with Minister Koizumi. We look for opportunities where we can operate together with, of course, the United States. We've had a number of meetings with the U.S., Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. So building that multilateral picture is really important, and we are very, you know, open about how we are working together and how we can work together with others, because ultimately what we're about is building deterrence in the Indo-Pacific to provide for the peace and stability of the Indo-Pacific, to provide for the collective peace and security of the region in which we live, and very much Southeast Asia, and asserting the rules-based order there, and that is something that we do together, but it is very much something that we do with other countries as well.

TEODORO: I believe now we're very much at work on the functional relationships between one another, but we need to progress through more predictive and anticipative coordination if we are to meet the challenges of the future.

MARLES: Great, thank you, everyone.

ENDS