00:00Thank you. Thank you for covering us here today. I want to welcome our colleagues from Australia
00:17in this ministerial meeting. It's the first one that I've done in my time here in the last year.
00:23Obviously, the same is true for Secretary Hexth, and I want to welcome both the foreign minister
00:27and the deputy prime minister for defense for both joining us here today. This is an incredibly
00:33strong alliance. In fact, as we were discussing a few moments ago, it is our only ally that has
00:38fought with us in every war over the last four or five decades, and we're very grateful to them
00:45for that. This is a very strong partnership. It's a strong alliance, and what we want to do is
00:50continue to build on it. We think we have a lot of momentum behind this alliance coming off the visit
00:55with the prime minister here in October, which we also had a chance to participate in and then
01:00follow up events to it, and we felt very strongly after that that we have real momentum. We wanted
01:05to do this here before the end of the year to continue to build on that alliance and to continue
01:10to build on that momentum that came from that meeting and to work together on our shared priorities,
01:14and we have so many. We truly have no better friend. In addition to that strong alliance,
01:19we're also deeply committed to the quad, the concept of, in conjunction with Japan and India,
01:24the building out of this quad, which is something you'll see. In fact, it was my first meeting
01:28as secretary of state. I had been confirmed, sworn in downstairs, and came right up on that elevator
01:35and into this room, and it was in this very room that I did my first event as secretary of state with
01:40the quad, and we look forward to, I think we've had at least three meetings this year, if I recall correctly,
01:45and we'll continue to build on that in the year to come. We look to do more of those,
01:49and so we have a lot of things we've worked together on at the direction of the president.
01:56AUKUS is full steam ahead, as he said, and I know the Department of War, Secretary Hexeth will discuss
02:02that further, has conducted a review, which it's a review about how we can expand this relationship,
02:09about how to build on it so that it can be about many things, and I know we've also signed
02:14landmark critical mineral framework agreement. This is something we share in common, not just with
02:18Australia, but with many of our allies around the world, the desire to diversify supply chains,
02:25and the belief that in order for us to be able to do anything, whether it's defend our countries,
02:29defend our allies, or defend each other, but also to build our economies, and to prosper as economies,
02:35we have to have critical mineral supplies and supply chains that are reliable, and that are diverse,
02:41and not overly invested in one place where they could be used as leverage against us or our partners
02:47of the world. And so this is something that you'll find the U.S. and Australia working very closely on,
02:52and it's at the cornerstone of everything we plan to do together in the months and years to come.
02:57So I want to welcome you to Washington. Thank you for joining us and doing it and agreeing to doing
03:00it here. At the end of this year, I know you have many other obligations and places. You're going to be
03:06traveling quite extensively in the days to come as well, so we're very grateful that you were willing to come
03:10here and join us, and we look forward to reciprocating in the new year by visiting you in Australia,
03:15as I look forward to. And it's one of my... I actually have never been, and I need to go,
03:22and it's a very efficient trip, because I can say I went to a country and a continent all at once,
03:26and so very rarely can you say that. So thank you for joining us here today. We're grateful and honored
03:33by your presence. Thank you very much, Secretary Rubio. Can I thank you and Secretary Hegseth for
03:39hosting us in this extraordinary room, as you said, where we've had our first Quad meeting
03:45after you were sworn in. We're really, Richard and I are so happy to be here, so honored to
03:52participate in another OSMEN meeting, and to build on the very successful meeting between the President
03:58and the Prime Minister, and including the historic Critical Minerals deal that they delivered.
04:07OSMEN was established, that is, this meeting was established under President Ronald Reagan
04:12and Prime Minister Bob Hawke. And in 1985, President Reagan spoke of our common defense
04:18of freedom from the First and Second World Wars, and said, all this has nurtured the bonds of
04:24friendship between our two peoples. Today, the United States and Australia as much as ever
04:30rely on each other. That remains true today, and as Secretary Rubio said, Australian soldiers
04:36have fought beside American troops in every major battle since World War I, and we continue
04:41to rely on each other. Not just our service men and women, whom we thank for their service,
04:46but all our people. And that's because the work we do together is indispensable to a peaceful,
04:51stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and this is something Secretary Rubio has spoken so eloquently
04:57about. The United States is our principal ally and our principal strategic partner, and together
05:05we navigate volatility, we invest in each other, we invest in the region's security, and we boost
05:11each other's prosperity, whether that's through investment in critical minerals,
05:16critical technology, Australian superannuation, or of course AUKUS. Australia's approach to
05:22the alliance has always been to ensure, work to ensure it delivers concrete benefits for
05:28our security and prosperity, and for that of the United States. And AUKUS is central to
05:32that, a win for Australia, a win for the US, and a win for the United Kingdom. And we welcome
05:37President Trump's statement, we are full steam ahead. We are full steam ahead. So we look
05:43forward very much to these consultations today, very happy to be here in Washington. We'd also,
05:49as Secretary Rubio, be very honoured to welcome you to Australia when you are able to come.
05:55So thank you again for hosting us. We look forward to the discussions.
05:58Secretary Rubio, thank you for hosting us. Deputy Prime Minister Marles, we've seen each other often,
06:07and we will continue to inform Minister Wong. Thank you for being here. It was mentioned,
06:11this is the 40th year of Ausma, 1985, and it's not lost on any of us the depth of the friendship our
06:19two countries have had and our militaries have had for quite some time. And it was Ronald Reagan who,
06:23just like the Trump administration, put a practical application to that partnership 40 years ago by
06:29ensuring that our leaders are meeting together regularly to stay on track in rowing in the same
06:35direction, because we share the same values, the same neighborhood, both Pacific nations. And
06:42our leadership is coming together on a regular basis as a reflection of that. So on the defense side,
06:46we're working on force posture, we're working on defense industrial cooperation,
06:50first on force posture initiatives. We're upgrading infrastructure on air bases in Queensland and the
06:56Northern Territory that allows for additional U.S. bomber rotations. We're upgrading logistics and
07:01infrastructure in Darwin, so more U.S. Marines can do rotational deployments and pre-positioning
07:08MB-22 Ospreys. This establishes new and resilient logistics networks across Australia.
07:15We're deepening our cooperation on the defense industrial base, cooperation on guided weapons production and
07:19lethal capabilities, two-year road maps on Australia's guided weapons and explosive ordinance enterprise,
07:26groundbreaking cooperative actions on things like Gimler's guided missile launch rocket systems and
07:32precision strike missiles. And we're working toward co-production and co-sustainment of hypersonic
07:37attack cruise missiles, co-sustainment air-to-air missiles, cooperative programs across the board,
07:43including Mark 54 torpedoes. We're also building on the historic framework and
07:49critical minerals cooperation that's been mentioned already by President Trump and Prime Minister
07:54Albanese signed in October. Critical minerals and rare earths are a huge part of ensuring both
08:01countries can operate the way we need to in that region around the world. And finally, as we move,
08:06as was mentioned, full steam ahead on AUKUS, we applaud Australia's upcoming delivery of an additional
08:121 billion to help expand U.S. submarine production capacity. We're strengthening AUKUS so that it works
08:18for America, for Australia, and for the UK. There's a lot we're going to do together in the months ahead.
08:24This meeting will be, as was laid out by President Trump, as I mentioned at Reagan just a couple days
08:30ago, these are practical, realistic ways that our two countries can come together to ensure that we provide
08:37peace through strength for both of our nations. The stronger we are together, the more we can deter
08:42the kinds of conflicts neither of us want to see, and this is a deepening of that partnership. I'm
08:47grateful to be here. Thank you. Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth, Marco Pete, on behalf of Penny and I
08:55thank you very much for having us here in Washington today. It is a real pleasure to be here in the 40th
09:03anniversary of Ausmin. Our relationship with the United States is the most important relationship
09:10that we have and indeed our alliance with the United States is really the cornerstone of Australian
09:16strategic and foreign policy and today is an important moment to take that forward again over
09:23the next 12 months. We are living in a much more contested world where it really matters to be doubling
09:32down with friends and allies and obviously America is front and centre and foremost for Australia
09:39in that respect. We are very grateful for the meeting that happened between Prime Minister
09:45Albanese and President Trump a couple of months ago. It's very significant in the context of the
09:51relationship. I think also President Trump has given us the motto for our meeting today which is full
09:56steam ahead and it is very much full steam ahead in terms of the alliance, in terms of the progress on
10:04AUKUS, in preparing ourselves for the establishment of the submarine rotational force west at the end of
10:112027. That is a significant moment in the journey of AUKUS but right now we've had an increased number of
10:20visits of US nuclear powered submarines to Australia including the USS Vermont which has been at HMAS Sterling
10:28over the last six weeks or so where it's undergone the most extensive maintenance that a US nuclear
10:34submarine has undertaken outside of the United States and we are really pleased with the progress that we
10:41are seeing in terms of building Australia's capabilities to ultimately be able to operate our own
10:48nuclear powered submarine capability going forward. At every AUKUS meeting that we've had over the
10:56since 2022 when Penny and I first started attending these AUKUS meetings a central part of what we have
11:05sought to do in the defence space is to increase the US footprint in Australia and this AUKUS will be no
11:13different as Pete has just taken you through be it infrastructure which enables greater bomber rotations
11:19in Australia or be it what we are doing in terms of enhancing logistics capability of the United States
11:26in Australia having more American equipment be stored in Australia for example the Ospreys these are just
11:35the examples of what we are doing across every domain air sea and ground but also space and cyber to have the
11:43most extensive American force posture that we have seen in terms of the breadth of that in the Australian continent
11:50and that is so important going forward to make very clear in our region that Australia and America
11:57stand side by side in working together to contribute to the peace and security of the Indo-Pacific.
12:03As we meet today there are almost 900 Australian servicemen and women who are embedded in the United
12:11States defence forces across the US indeed the deputy commanders of the US Army the US Navy and the US
12:18Air Force in the Pacific are all now institutionally Australian and that is an example of the degree to
12:25which our two countries work so closely together in respect of defence. Penny and I are really looking forward to
12:31taking our relationship and our alliance again forward in the meetings that we have today we're working
12:39really well with this administration and we are very excited about working with you Marco and Pete to
12:45take the alliance forward into the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
12:52for
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