Well, thanks for joining us. I'm absolutely delighted to host my friend, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, on his first official visit to Australia as Prime Minister of Singapore. Although this is our first official meeting in Canberra, this is our fourth in-person meeting since May last year. Singapore and Australia are close partners, but we are even closer friends. This year, as we celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations and ten years of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, we are deepening our relationship even further. Today, Prime Minister Wong and I launched an upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that takes our cooperation to the next level. The ambitious next phase of our evolving partnership will increase defence cooperation, expand our economic partnership, including to help ensure supply chains remain resilient, support our action together on climate change, strengthen pandemic preparedness and research cooperation, boost development on AI and emerging technologies, and furthering partnerships between our public service, universities and art institutions. In addition to our upgraded partnership, Ministers have signed Memorandum of Understanding across the board. There's a new Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, Economic Resilience Agreement, and another on working with our ASEAN partners. We also discussed the recent Optus emergency service outages. We had a constructive conversation. I thank very much Prime Minister Wong for his words of condolence for those who were impacted with their families. We spoke about Australia and Singapore's focus on ASEAN and its central role in this region. I thank Prime Minister Wong for his commitment to this vision. And I thank Singapore for six decades of partnership. This has been a partnership between leaders, between nations, but most importantly between peoples. And I now will hand to Prime Minister Wong before we take the questions from the media.
MR LAWRENCE WONG, PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE: Thank you, Prime Minister Albanese, for the warm welcome once again. I am pleased to be in Canberra to commemorate several significant milestones in our bilateral relationship. This year we marked 60 years of diplomatic ties. Australia was one of the very first countries to recognise Singapore's independence and establish diplomatic ties with us. We are grateful for your friendship and steadfast support over the decades. We also marked 50 years since the Singapore Armed Forces started training in Australia. Generations of our servicemen and women have benefited from your hospitality and support. In turn, Singapore has always stood ready to help in difficult times. Most recently during the Queensland floods earlier this year. Of course, this year is also the tenth anniversary of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This has delivered real and tangible benefits for both countries. More than 110 initiatives, including pathfinding ones, like the world's first digital and green economy agreements. We have forged closer links between our businesses with more than 5,000 Australian companies now using Singapore as a launchpad to access opportunities in the region. And we have a significant flow of two-way travel, with people studying, working and living in our respective countries. Many have formed close ties and lifelong friendships. And these people to people ties form the foundation of our partnership.
Prime Minister Albanese and I have earlier agreed and launched the upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, one which is anchored in trust, and which will allow us to chart new frontiers together. For example, we are stepping up our security cooperation through the Enhanced Defence Cooperation MOU. We will improve our military's reciprocal access to facilities and deepen cooperation in defence, science, technology, logistics and supply chains. We are strengthening economic connectivity. We will ensure that critical goods continue flowing between our countries, even during disruptions. We will cooperate in new and emerging areas like cyber, digital space and artificial intelligence. This will enable us to shape international standards and harness the transformative potential of these new technologies. And we will enhance our Green Partnership by refreshing our Green Economy Agreement and holding a Ministerial dialogue on energy. And we will support Australia's vision to become a renewable energy superpower by connecting your abundant resources with Southeast Asia's growing demand for clean power.
Both Australia and Singapore recognise that our future security and prosperity lies in Asia. And that means we will have to work together to shape the architecture for cooperation in our region. Singapore will continue to support Australia's efforts to deepen its engagement with Southeast Asia. And we will cooperate under a new third country training program to deliver capacity building programs for Southeast Asian countries, including what will soon be ASEAN's newest member, Timor Leste.
All in all, we have a full and ambitious agenda ahead of us. Prime Minister Albanese and I have tasked our Ministers to begin implementing the CSP 2.0 in earnest and we look forward to the updates. The world today is becoming more uncertain and more unsettled, but Australia and Singapore share a common strategic perspective that is built on a deep reservoir of trust. And I'm confident that with this strong foundation, we can continue to chart new frontiers and deliver lasting benefits for both our peoples. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Questions.
JOURNALIST: Thank you, Prime Ministers. Prime Minister Wong, in terms of defence cooperation, how could this work in practise? Could that potentially involve an Australian presence in Singapore, rotation of troops and assets? And Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the climate ramifications of this - are we going to need to sign more deals with countries like Singapore if we are going to make those climate targets?
PRIME MINISTER WONG: On defence cooperation, we see Australia as a resident power in Asia and your continued presence in this part of the world contributes to stability, security for all the countries in Asia. That's why we already have a strong defence partnership, but we are enhancing it further and providing more support and enhanced access to Singapore's air and naval bases. And this will enable Australia to deploy more of its forces in our part of the world. We are working out the details of what this will entail, but clearly it will mean stronger facilitation for Australia to participate in Asia, for Australia to extend its security presence in Southeast Asia and the region more generally. And we believe this will be critical and important for Asia's continued stability and security.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Can I thank Prime Minister Wong for the engagement that's there in defence, but also on green energy. On defence, the Wallaby Exercises are taking place as we speak, and the enhanced availability of Singapore's ports and air access is obviously very important for Australia to be able to have that presence in Southeast Asia, in that region. And it is a logical next step. And I thank very much Singapore for that.
On the green economy, the Green Economy Agreement between Australia and Singapore is one of the world's first, and what we are doing is further enhancing it as well. Singapore is doing some quite extraordinary work as well in creating a grid in its region, and that is something that this morning we had really constructive discussions with the Singaporean Minister as well as the Australian Minister going forward. And I'm sure that part of what we need to do with the challenge of climate change that both of us understand is real and needs action, is we need more cooperative action towards our common goal, which is reducing emissions in order to reduce the impact of climate change.
JOURNALIST: Could you share more details on the MOU and economic resilience? This arrangement on trade in essential supplies, what form will this take? What will it cover? Are we talking about food, medical supplies and what's the scale of it? What kind of logistics is going to go into this?
PRIME MINISTER WONG
