Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Good afternoon. It is my absolute pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Napat and his delegation on what is his first visit to Australia as Prime Minister. Australia and Vanuatu are of course members of the Pacific family, with connections built over generations. And that close relationship has allowed us to progress and today to sign a landmark new treaty, the Nakamal Agreement. It’s not lost on my Government the naming of this agreement. In Vanuatu, the Nakamal is the traditional meeting place where the community and its leaders consult and make decisions with mutual respect, trust and understanding. And this is the bedrock of the relationship between our two nations and of this agreement. Mutual respect, trust and understanding.
Our agreement reflects and confirms Australia’s role as Vanuatu’s largest and most comprehensive economic, security and development partner. A responsibility that we take seriously. Above all, it is built on an equal partnership. We have concluded a balanced agreement that will protect our collective and individual security and our sovereignty. And it will support our interest in a stable, prosperous and secure region that we both call home. Importantly, this agreement advances the consensus that security is the shared responsibility of the Pacific family, the members of the Pacific Island Forum. It encapsulates Vanuatu’s sovereign decision not to permit its territory to be used for any foreign military base or infrastructure and that Vanuatu’s critical infrastructure remains free from militarisation.
Under Nakamal, Vanuatu has committed to continuing to look to Pacific Island Forum members to support its policing needs, including Australia as Vanuatu’s longstanding primary policing partner. Both our countries recognise the threat posed by climate change, particularly in our region. And Australia of course, will play a lead role in the Conference of the Parties that will be held later this year and in the pre-COP meeting that will be held in Fiji and Tuvalu in October. The Pacific is our home and together with Vanuatu, we want a resilient, sovereign and connected region that benefits us all.
I invite Prime Minister Napat to say some remarks and then we have a couple of questions.
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