Well, it's an absolute pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Wale and his delegation to Canberra for his first overseas visit. I apologise for the fact it's a bit colder than it is in the Sollys. The Prime Minister's decision to choose Australia for his first overseas visit reflects the closeness of our relationship and I congratulate him on the energy and vision he has brought to his first days in office. I was in the Solomons in September last year for the Pacific Islands Forum meeting and the visit highlighted to me the extraordinary depth and breadth of the Australian Solomon Islands relationship and our shared commitment to the region as members of the Pacific family. That visit also reaffirmed that we're not immune from current geopolitical events. In times of global uncertainty, we look to each other because we're stronger when we work together. Australia is committed to listening, engaging, with respect and supporting the priorities of the Solomon Islands Government.
Today, we've committed to elevate our bilateral relationship, at the request of the Solomon Islands. This will be agreed in a new comprehensive treaty underpinned by mutual trust, respect and open dialogue. This treaty will allow Australia and the Solomon Islands to confront global and regional challenges as partners. This is a significant body of work and we've asked our Foreign Ministers to lead and drive this forward. We've also agreed to move to the next phase of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, Australian Federal Police Policing Partnership Program, building capability and strengthening policing cooperation. This builds on the Pacific Policing Initiative that we launched at the Pacific Islands Forum just a couple of years ago. And we welcome the Solomon Islands signature of this agreement of understanding, reinforcing our shared commitment to regional security.
We have also agreed on a package of support centred on recovery from Tropical Cyclone Maila and current energy issues, while looking ahead to the future of how we can support education and skills development. Free education has been identified as a priority of the Prime Minister and Australia is more than willing to support this initiative and to provide whatever assistance we can to make sure that this vision of the Prime Minister becomes a realisation. Australia and the Solomon Islands have a proud history of standing together and today we've had the opportunity to discuss with my senior Ministers, the senior Ministers from the Solomon Islands who are visiting as part of this delegation, as well Australia is committed to continuing to work to amplify Pacific voices and pursue shared solutions as a Pacific family. The Prime Minister and his Ministers will Meet with one on one with a range of our Ministers. And tonight I look forward to hosting the Prime Minister and Mrs Wale as well at the lodge together, myself and Jodie, along with our Ministers. That will be a very pleasant evening, I'm sure with the Prime Minister's side. Now I invite the Prime Minister to make some remarks before we take some questions. Prime Minister.
MATTHEW COOPER WALE, PRIME MINISTER OF SOLOMON ISLANDS: Thank you, Prime Minister. It's been a very warm welcome to Canberra. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and so has my Ministers and delegation. I had expected it to be much, much colder, Prime Minister, Yes, we have a saying in my mother tongue - the man who brings a bit of drizzle is your best friend. So, when I arrived, Prime Minister, there was a bit of a drizzle. Solomon Islands is Australia's friend, has always been and always will be. Of course there are, I'm sure you'll be popping questions about the last few years and we have had some issues and all relationships go through issues, bumps here and there. But the resilience of our relationship I think is self evident. It lies in our people, to people contacts and of course in our institutional relations over so many years, perhaps even more than a century. And it is not easy to break that kind of the depth and the strength of such a relationship. So, we're, we're very happy, we're pleased it didn't, you know, what's the word. The grand welcome when we came down from the plane, Prime Minister, very moving. And of course, the cannons this morning I thought, blimey, it's, it's something else. So, pardon my naivety, it was all very nice, Prime Minister. And thank you. We have sought a reset in this relationship. We acknowledge that there's been problems over the last few years, I'll be honest, and we thank the Honourable Prime Minister that we're able to elevate our relationship to a comprehensive strategic one where both sides will benefit by having trust in each other's decision making. And that will be good also for the region. Thank you very much.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Thank you. Matthew Knott. First question,
JOURNALIST: Negotiations with Pacific nations about various treaties. Australia sought to place limits on critical infrastructure and what those nations can do with other parties. Will Australia be seeking something like that in this treaty with the Solomon Islands? And Prime Minister, welcome to Australia. Could I ask you, do you have any fears that developing a new treaty with Australia will cause any blowback from Beijing? And also Australia has made a very clear stance that security and policing should be only a matter for nations within the Pacific. Do you agree with that? Or does China also have a role in policing and security in the Solomons?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, today is, of course, day one and we've agreed to develop the comprehensive strategic treaty between us and we'll work through the issues, but it will be one which identifies our mutual trust, our respect for each other, the sovereignty of both of our nations as we go forward. But we have said very clearly we want Australia to be the security partner of choice in our region and we want the Pacific family to look after our security in this region.
PRIME MINISTER WALE: Thank you. It will be important in such a treaty, both at the bilateral level, but perhaps also at some stage at the regional level, that the first reference point in these matters is within the region. That I think is very important going forward. So, that's the direction we want to take.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Stephen Dziedzic.
JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. Prime Minister Wale, a few years ago you said that the China Solomon island security Pact should be published and made public. Have you had time now you've been in office for a few weeks to review that pact. Will you make it public? And in your initial assessment, are there any changes that could or should be made to that document? And Prime Minister, can I ask for Australia's view? Australia's consistently called for transparency around these arrangements. Is it Australia's view still that this document should be a public one? Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER WALE:: Thank you. I have had to remove certain people from key positions. I haven't been afforded a copy even of that agreement until a day before I left. So, I haven't had a good look at it. I've had a look at it, I'll be honest with you, but I haven't had a good look at it. I've been praying and fasting about it, but of course, you know, Cabinet will need to have a look at these things. There is a non disclosure clause in it, so I couldn't show it to you right away, but we are going to be reviewing as we are reviewing other security agreements that we have with many other countries.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Thank you. And Australia respects the sovereignty of nations in the Pacific and we respect the decisions that will be made by the Prime Minister. Kristy.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Wale, Solomon Islands' debt to Chinese banks last year doubled on infrastructure projects. Would you be looking to widen the external partners that Solomon island works with on key projects such as ports or fisheries? Harbour, like Beena Harbour. Would this include the United States, for example, as well as Australia and other countries more broadly?
PRIME MINISTER WALE: Well, thank you. This is part of the ongoing discussions that will happen. We, we have a core economic platform, part of our vision to create jobs in the solvents, to bring more foreign receipts into our economy. And so we will be looking to Australia in those discussions, perhaps give us some good rates so we can build critical infrastructure and have sovereign control over them. Of course, we've just recently signed the DFC agreement with the US and so we will be looking to the US as well. We're hoping. In my conversations with the Deputy Secretary of State, Washington, D.C. we're hoping that they would bring forward our accession into the compact arrangement for MCC. So, there's, you know, sources of financing that we would be looking for, for critical infrastructure. Yes, ports. Everybody's interested in ports. We like it. And so we hope that we will have access to these institutions to be able to fund those. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: You mentioned that you'd agreed on a package of support in terms of navigating the current energy crisis. What does that look like? And Prime Minister Wale, given the Solomon Islands is so reliant on imported oil, have you received enough support from Australia to help your country potentially weather worsening storm?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: We'll be providing $200 million Solomon for the cost of recovering from tropical cyclone Maila and also to deal with these current energy issues.
PRIME MINISTER WALE: Thank you. Unfortunately, the price of diesel especially continues to rise. I checked this morning in Honiara, and it's risen a few more dollars. Solomon dollars. So, that's going to be part of an ongoing discussion as well. I don't think we can pin it down to any particular level of support at this stage, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Thank you, everyone.
