Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister Fakafanua, you are very welcome here in Australia. This is our first meeting, but, of course, Australia and Tonga have such a warm and long friendship. We’re all part of the Pacific family and that is why I’m so pleased to welcome you here. Indeed there is, of course, the people-to-people connections are so strong, including in my local electorate in the inner western suburbs of Sydney, where there’s a substantial diaspora as well. The relationship that we have in dealing with climate change, we will discuss at the pre-COP meeting that will be held in Fiji, and then, of course, again at the Pacific Island Forum meeting in Palau, just a couple of months later. Climate change, economic relations, the opportunities that come from the exchange of people, as well, including the contribution that we can make through the Pacific Labour Mobility Program, is important. But also our standing together in the Pacific on security, economic development, climate action – all of these issues are ones in which our relationship can be even stronger, I think, and I want to elevate that relationship to a higher level in the future. I look forward to working with you. You are still relatively new since your election, and I just want to conclude by congratulating you on your election.
< LORD FATAFEHI FAKAFANUA, PRIME MINISTER OF TONGA: