Singaporean and Australian prime ministers speak on sidelines of ASEAN summit

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister is making a big pitch for Australian investment in South-East Asia unveiling a two-billion-dollar fund to ASEAN leaders he is hosting in Melbourne. It comes as tensions in the region flare again; coast guard ships from China and the Philippines have collided in disputed waters in the South China sea.

Transcript

00:00 Standing together at a pivotal moment.

00:07 Australia finds itself in a region which is becoming more powerful and prosperous.

00:13 Right in the middle of the fastest growing region of the world in human history.

00:18 That presents an incredible opportunity for Australia.

00:22 The Prime Minister engaging in a lightning round of intense diplomacy with leaders

00:27 and putting money on the table too.

00:30 Up to $2 billion in loans and equity to encourage Australian investment into South East Asia.

00:36 Particularly clean energy and infrastructure projects.

00:40 What it means is new investment. What it means is jobs here in Australia.

00:45 Australian business has often hung back from the region.

00:49 Some predict that might be changing.

00:52 ASEAN is such an enormous opportunity for Australia.

00:55 ASEAN is the fastest growing region in the world.

00:58 But South East Asia holds risks as well as opportunity, particularly in the South China Sea.

01:05 ASEAN nations all want a peaceful, secure region because they understand that that's the key to prosperity.

01:13 South East Asian countries are trying to negotiate a code of conduct to preserve the peace.

01:18 But progress is painfully slow.

01:21 Because the ultimate answers are difficult, so too negotiating the code will take quite some time.

01:27 ASEAN loves consensus and Australia would like to build one here.

01:32 If it could get all South East Asian states to agree that China's behaviour in the South China Sea is unacceptable,

01:39 then it might be able to exert real pressure on Beijing to curb its behaviour.

01:44 But ASEAN has shied away from doing that in the past and it's likely to do so again here.

01:51 here.

01:51 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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