Press conference, Canberra

PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: Hi everybody. Thanks very much for being here. I'm just so very pleased to welcome Dr Jaishankar the Minister for External Affairs of India back to Australia for his second visit this year following the very successful Indian Ocean Conference that we held in Perth. This is our 19th meeting and of my counterparts, Jai is the person with whom I have met most and that says something about our friendship, it says something about my regard for him, and the wisdom and insight he always brings to our discussions. But it also says something about the relationship between our two countries which is of such great importance to Australia and I believe for India too. We are comprehensive strategic partners, we are Quad-partners, we share a region and we share a future. We see India as just so important in terms of securing the region we both want and the world we both want. 

We've had an excellent discussion this morning. We talked in particular about the architecture, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership we have. Next year is the five year anniversary and we spoke about the next stage of ambition in that relationship. Obviously apart from the very important bilateral relations between governments and our very important work together in the region and multilaterally, the beating heart of the relationship is the people to people links, the community ties of about one million Australians to trace their heritage to India and really pleased at the engagement from the diaspora as well. We cooperate across really important sectors, science, technology, clean energy, agriculture, education, skills and tourism. In relation to progressing our tech cooperation I am announcing today that the Australian government will award $1.6 million in grant funding for six impressive projects under the Australia India Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership. So my congratulations to the winners which are the Australia India Institute, the ANU, the CSIRO, the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, Monash University and the National Institute of Strategic Resilience. These are great projects on priority areas such as undersea cables, responsible development principles for quantum technologies and digital public infrastructure.

Obviously India is - I think it's the fastest growing major economy. It's an essential partner for Australia as we continue to strengthen and diversify our trade links and secure our supply chains. We are a partner in economic matters as well as a partner more broadly. I am also delighted to announce we will send for the first time a First Nations business mission to India in 2025, looking to support new partnerships for Australian First Nations businesses looking to engage with India and promoting the excellence, ideas and unique offerings of First Nations businesses to new markets overseas. 

Finally last year we announced at our last ministerial dialogue, actually the two plus two ministerial dialogue, a 1.5 track strategic dialogue. This is a platform for engagement, not just at government level but beyond on the really big geostrategic trends shaping our region. I'm very pleased to share with you we have selected Australia's think tank partner to support the delivery of this dialogue which is the Asia Society. I also look forward to engaging with Jai tomorrow at the Raisina Down Under for a conversation on the Indian Ocean, an increasing area of cooperation for us. There's plenty more to do as we continue to work together to address the shared challenges in the region and beyond. So thank you Jai for coming back to Australia with your delegation, look forward to hearing from you. 

DR SUBRAHMANYAM JAISHANKAR, EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER OF INDIA: Thank you Penny. If I could supplement Minister Wong's remarks. This is our third Foreign Minister's framework dialogue. But as Penny said we have been meeting regularly so in a way a kind of continuing conversation between us. I think our last meeting was in New York or the sidelines of the UNGA.  We are of course Comprehensive Strategic Partners.  We are also very important Quad partners. And I think whether it's on the bilateral side or beyond I think we essentially have a good story to tell. If I were to just look at the last year we have started our annual summit practice. The ECTA trade agreement has yielded results.  It's moving, we are negotiating our way towards a CECA. Trade itself has actually been at recorded levels, I believe it was 48 billion Australian dollars last year.  We have just opened more consulates. The Australian one in Bengaluru, a formally integrated Indian consulate in Brisbane. We have - Australian universities have also been the first to actually open establishments in India. Two of them have done so. Our education minister was here recently to take that forward. The work and holiday program has started, the Mates Program will start very soon. On the defence side we had the Australian Air Force, Exercise Tarang Shakti we have participated in Exercise Pitch Black and we are doing the Raisina Down Under at the beginning that practice we hope that will be a bigger one, starting this afternoon. Now apart from coming to Canberra for this dialogue, as I said I was in Brisbane yesterday for the formal opening of the consulate. I also had an opportunity to visit the HADR warehouse which your department organises. I hope that can become a platform for another corporation, bilaterally and possibly on the Quad. I will be going from here to Sydney tomorrow and hope to do some business meetings there. I also had an opportunity to visit the University of Queensland and meet students, meet researchers.  So bilaterally as I said, it's a strong report card. In terms of global issues, today we've had a discussion already about our respective neighbourhood. We spoke about the global strategic situation, largely Ukraine, Indo-Pacific, Middle East a little bit. We will have a more detailed Quad discussion over lunch. So all in all, I think this practice of meeting regularly has, you know, once again shown really how useful valuable our conversations are, thank you for hosting me again and it's good to be back in Australia.

FOREIGN MINISTER:  Thanks very much, we'll turn to questions now, Rhiannon Down from The Australian.

JOURNALIST: Minister Jaishankar, may I please ask, China and India have recently taken steps towards disengagement.  Are you on a path to stabilisation, and what are the implications to the stability of the region?

MINISTER JAISHANKAR: Yes. On October 21st we concluded the last lot of disengagement agreements, we had done some earlier.  These are currently in the process of being implemented.  The last agreement was primarily around patrolling rights of the two sides. So we think all in all it's a positive development. The fact that with that, once it's done the disengagement process is completed, we have other challenges to address including de-escalation of forces but at Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting Prime Minister Modi and President Xi had a meeting. It was agreed that the foreign ministers and the national security advisors would meet, so we will have to look at further building on this.

JOURNALIST:  And Minister Wong, may I please ask did you recently meet with Mike Pompeo in Washington? What did you discuss and what would a Trump presidency mean for Australia?

FOREIGN MINISTER:  In relation to the first yes, I did and you would anticipate before an election it's important that we meet with both the government of the day but also the potential alternative government. It was a very good discussion. I obviously won't go in to all of the details but what I can share is obviously one of the priorities for us to discuss was AUKUS and very pleased that the sort of bipartisan support that we've seen previously from visiting congressional delegations who you might have heard from but also public statements, that we have an understanding on both sides of politics in the US about the importance of AUKUS. In terms of the US election, we will work with whomever the American people choose, we will work with whoever they choose for President and also for the congress of the day, in Australia's interests. We will look to strengthen the alliance. As you know historically we've had an alliance for many, many years and it is a relationship that is bigger than the events of the day. It's shaped by enduring friendship and timeless values, thank you.

JOURNALIST: A question for both ministers please. Are you concerned about the real prospect of a Trump presidency, that it would upend the international order, and in particular will the Quad survive a Trump presidency?

FOREIGN MINISTER:  Well in relation to the first, I'll refer to my earlier answer, but the question on the Quad is an important one. And what I would reflect to you is that we both see - I don't want to speak for Jai but I think on this I can express a very similar view - we both see the great importance in the Quad. It is an arrangement, a meeting, a grouping with countries that share very similar interests in the sort of region we want and having countries of from different perspectives, so obviously the US, India, Australia, Japan it's a very valuable strategic discussion. We would see that is retaining its importance regardless of the outcome of the election.

MINISTER JAISHANKAR: You know, we have actually seen steady progress in our relationship with the US over the last five presidencies. Including an earlier Trump presidency. So when we look at the American election, you know we are very confident that whatever the verdict our relationship with the United States will only grow. In terms of the Quad, I remind you that actually the Quad was revived under a Trump presidency in 2017. It was then moved from the level of a permanent secretary to a minister. Also during the Trump presidency. And in fact it's interesting, in the midst of COVID when pretty much physical meetings had stopped one of the rare physical meetings of foreign ministers was actually of the Quad in Tokyo in 2020 so I think that should tell us something about the prospects of that.

FOREIGN MINISTER: Thank you. We've got Australia Today, thank you.

JOURNALIST:  My question is for both of you. Minister Jaishankar, how do you respond to attacks on Hindu temples and Hindus in Canada, by Khalistani supporters, and Minister Wong if you could answer, is this discussed ‑ diaspora safety with Minister Jaishankar given the fact that just a week back two Hindu temples were vandalised in Canberra itself, how do you see safety of minority Hindus in Australia?

MINISTER JAISHANKAR: Do you know, I think what happened yesterday at the Hindu temple in Canada was obviously deeply concerning.  And you would have seen the statement first by official spokesperson and also the expression of concern by our Prime Minister yesterday.  So that should, I think, convey to you how deeply we feel about it.

FOREIGN MINISTER: Well first in relation to safety, all Australians regardless of their faith, their culture, who they are, where they live, are entitled to be safe and they're entitled to be respected. And in relation to the vandalism that you describe I know that our local members have expressed a very strong view about that, particularly in the week of Diwali, it's a very upsetting thing for peoples of the faith community and the Indian community more broadly. So I would again say people across Australia have a right to be safe and respected. People also have a right to peaceful protest, people have a right to express their views peacefully, we draw a line between that and violence, incitement of hatred, or vandalism and they should be dealt with by the appropriate law enforcement authorities. We are a multi‑cultural democracy. We cherish that fact, but we also cherish those principles which enable that multi‑cultural democracy to flourish and they are respect of one another, and a right to express different views peacefully, thank you very much. Was it Finn McHugh?

JOURNALIST: Hi, Minister Wong, Canada says that it has credible intelligence that the Indian government was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.  Similar allegations have been looked in to in the US.  Can we just clarify, does your government trust your five eyes partners’ intelligence on that matter specifically, is there anything more generally you would say to the Sikh community to reassure them that there's nothing to fear here; and Minister Jaishankar, your government has obviously labelled the allegations absurd but have Australian diplomats raised concerns with you either today or in the last few months about them?

FOREIGN MINISTER: Perhaps I'll go first.  First in relation to Australia's Sikh community I would say the same thing I said to - I think its Jai, isn't it?  People have a right to be safe and respected regardless of who they are in our country that's the essence of our multi‑cultural democracy. We have made clear our concerns about the allegations under investigations. We've said that we respect Canada's judicial process. We convey our views to India as you would expect us to do. And we have a principle position in relation to matters such as the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and also frankly the sovereignty of all countries.

MINISTER JAISHANKAR:  Let me make three comments. One, Canada has developed a pattern of making allegations without providing specifics. Secondly, when we look at Canada for us the fact that they're putting our diplomats under surveillance is something which is unacceptable. Third, the incidents which the gentleman there spoke about, do look at the video, I think they would tell you in a way the political space today which is being given to extremist voices there. So we believe in freedoms, we also believe freedom should not be abused, and have we had a talk about it, exactly on the lines.