Readout of President Joe Biden's Meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. met today with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the margins of the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The leaders reaffirmed their strong support for ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN-led regional architecture. Recognizing that current regional and global challenges require close and strong security cooperation, the two leaders discussed U.S.-Australia Alliance priorities and the AUKUS security partnership with the United Kingdom. President Biden thanked the Prime Minister for standing with the United States and the world to impose costs on Russia for its unprovoked war on Ukraine. The leaders recognized the imperative of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. President Biden thanked Prime Minister Albanese for his leadership in tackling the climate crisis, highlighting the climate and energy transition partnership as a new pillar of the U.S.-Australia relationship and emphasizing the importance of our climate ambitions from the COP 27 this week. Because the future of the United States, Australia and the Indo-Pacific region are inextricably linked, the two leaders emphasized the importance of the new Partners in the Blue Pacific to help address challenges in the Pacific such as climate change, and bolster maritime domain security, pandemic preparedness and economic resilience. Underscoring the importance of the U.S.-Australia relationship in addressing a host of critical issues, President Biden told Prime Minister Albanese he looked forward to a very successful Quad Leaders' Summit in 2023, when Australia will host.