Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to you here in Australia and in Canberra. You are here for our Annual Leaders’ Meeting, but most importantly to celebrate 50 years since the signing of our Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. This is a relationship with a foundation built on trust, on friendship, and on looking after each other’s interests. It was a bipartisan initiative here in Australia, initiated by the Whitlam Labor Government, that then followed up by the Fraser Liberal Government. And the search for stability and economic cooperation in part came out of the turmoil created by the oil crisis in the 1970s. Once again, we are governing in what are volatile and difficult global economic circumstances, which just underlines how important the relationships between our nations are, between trusted friends and partners. And working together, we make ourselves stronger in defence and security issues, in energy, in economic and trade issues, as well as people-to-people exchanges. And in areas such as critical minerals, there’s much more that we can do together. And I’m very pleased that we’re elevating our Special Strategic Partnership across the breadth of our relationship, bringing peace, stability, and security to the region. So, I congratulate you on your significant election victory, and I look forward to continuing to work with you. We’ve met now on a number of occasions after your elevation to the prime ministership. This is an important relationship, and I know that your love for Australia is shown by the fact that you had your honeymoon here. So, I look forward to the meetings that we will have today, which will be important, building on our friendship and the relationship between our two nations, but I also look forward to our personal relationships being developed, including hosting you for dinner this evening at the Prime Minister’s residence here in Canberra.
< SANAE TAKAICHI, PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN: