Press conference, London

David Lammy, UK Foreign Secretary: Well can I say how wonderful it's been to have Penny and Richard with us here in London today. I've seen Penny Wong lots since starting the job, in Washington D.C., in Laos, in New York and in Samoa – and we had lots of contact previously when I was Shadow Foreign Secretary. But today was different, it was a chance to step back. And as Penny says, we face the most challenging strategic circumstances in the post war world.

With DPRK troops in Ukraine, it's clear that the Indo-Pacific and the Euro-Atlantic security are now indivisible. And we are holding this AUKMIN at a time when clearly global growth is stuttering. And so with the energy and tech transition fuelling geopolitical competition, it has been hugely important to continue to share our common assessment of the challenges that we face. And it's clear too that the Indo-Pacific will deliver over half of the world's global growth over the next period.

We don't characterise, under this government, our focus on the Indo-Pacific as a tilt. We see it as a systemic must for responding to these challenges. Our shared history has produced thriving multicultural democracy and I admire Penny's trailblazing, as an Asian-Australian, in Australian politics.

Clearly our Five Eyes partnership is unique and AUKUS too will transform our defence and industrial cooperation long after we have left office and many of us in this room are still alive. That's how important it is to our global security. And we see it as a floor, not a ceiling, on our security partnership. And we hope that it will continue to drive growth and jobs in both of our economies.

We have many economic opportunities. The UK formerly of course acceded to the CPTPP yesterday and it now comprises 12 economies with 15 per cent of global GDP.

Both our countries share a very common outlook. We're aligned on so many issues –AUKUS, of course reinforces our commitment to a free, open Indo-Pacific. On China, Penny has spoken of cooperating where we can, but disagreeing where we must. And we in the UK repeat that. And our shared commitment also to the Global South, which was on display at CHOGM, and our strong belief in the Commonwealth system.

Today we've agreed how we take that cooperation even further. John and Richard will talk further about our cooperation in Ukraine. Particularly if Putin got away with it, we would all pay the price, from Europe to the Indo-Pacific. We welcome Australia's growing climate leadership, back their bid to host COP31 with Pacific Island partners. We're excited about our bilateral climate and energy partnership that we signed at COP29 and we're joining up our efforts to help Pacific Island partners, particularly on the issue of climate finance and their investment in clean energy.

We will do more in the Indo-Pacific, delivering joint training in Pacific Island partners on hydrography where we both have cutting edge expertise. It's been a very productive day, hugely important and I think significant that we've been able to have a meeting twice within the space of a year.

Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Thanks very much, David. Can I begin by thanking you and John for hosting us here in London for AUKMIN and say how much we have enjoyed the engagement and the discussion today.

Holding this meeting twice in one year is a recognition of two things – the sharpening strategic circumstances we face, but also important importantly the enduring close strategic partnership these two nations share. And that was reaffirmed in the discussions today. The depth and dynamism of our partnership was on display. It's a partnership grounded in our history but also our values and one we are transforming as we face this increasingly unstable and uncertain world together.

As David said, and I want to say how much I've appreciated my engagement with the Foreign Secretary since he's been elected, but also prior to that. And we share a great deal in terms of worldviews. Different histories but very similar worldviews.

The context of these discussions is clear. As David said, we are navigating the most complex strategic environment since the end of World War II, and the rules that protect our nations are under pressure, possibly more than ever before. So, that's why we're working together to protect and uphold the rules. That's why we insist all countries abide by international law and adhere to international law because we recognise that we all benefit from a world where there are agreed rules which manage disputes.

We discussed our unwavering support for Ukraine in the face of Russia's illegal and immoral invasion. We are united in our condemnation of the DPRK's support for Russia. And today I have joined David and other partners to reiterate our strongest condemnation of the DPRK's increasing military cooperation with Russia.

We have coordinated closely and been united in our approach to the Middle East and the work to help to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East. And I want to thank David personally for his support of our drive to protect aid workers in conflict zones and today we agreed to work more closely to advance Australia's Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel.

Obviously, we spoke at length today about the Indo-Pacific and our shared commitment to the AUKUS partnership. It is the purpose of which is to contribute to stability in our region.

In other areas, we welcome the United Kingdom's commitment to ensuring a peaceful, stable and prosperous region, including in agreeing to formalise a Maritime Security Dialogue. David's spoken about the importance of the Climate and Energy Partnership, which we discussed at CHOGM in Samoa. And today we've agreed to improve climate finance access to the Pacific.

We welcome the United Kingdom's endorsement of the Pacific Quality Infrastructure Principles aimed at improving the quality of infrastructure investments in the Pacific. We will work together on digital development to strengthen the digital ecosystem and resilience in the region.

And of course, we also welcome today the UK's accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, which took effect yesterday and builds on the success of our bilateral trade agreement.

There's a lot more we can talk about, but I want to close these opening remarks by again reiterating my personal thanks to my friend David and also to John and your teams for hosting us here today.

John Healey, UK Defence Secretary: Thank you, Penny. For me, as a new Defence Secretary, it’s a real privilege to be on this platform with Richard, Penny and David, and a real pleasure to welcome and host Richard for the third time in less than five months in this job. And in many ways, that's as it should be for the Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of a nation that is one of our closest, longest standing allies in this world. One, of course, with a long sporting rivalry as well, which continued this morning before first light around St James’ Park when he bested me on a 5k run. He's a 7k man, 7k a day man. I'm a 3k once in a blue moon man. The outcomes there were never really a doubt, Richard.

But our two countries share an enduring, unbreakable bond, a bond that's of increasing importance in an increasingly unstable and threatening world. We are the closest of allies, Australia and the UK. We fight together, we stand together, and we underline the increasing indivisibility between security in the Euro-Atlantic area and security in the Indo-Pacific area. And that’s really at heart of why these talks and this meeting between the four ministers, in my view, is so important. We met, of course, after a weekend where we saw the Russian bombardment of Ukraine, over 100 ballistic and cruise missiles fired over the weekend from 200 drones - a time when Ukraine requires its staunchest allies to step up. Part of our discussions were to make together a commitment that we will stand by Ukraine, that we will remain steadfast allies of Ukraine, and we will step up the support we are willing to give Ukraine. I want to thank Australia for the extraordinary help and contribution they have made to the UK-led training program, Interflex, which has trained over 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers. We've made the commitment that will continue throughout 2025. Australia today has also confirmed their commitment that they will be involved in that training throughout 2025. We talked about ways that we could potentially step up that training support to Ukraine. We talked about ways we could step our support through the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine, and also through the capability coalitions that we are both committed to supporting.

In the Indo-Pacific, we unsurprisingly focused a great deal of our discussions on the challenge of maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, the challenge of China - increasingly active, increasingly assertive in the region - and the vital importance of maintaining both deterrence and freedom of navigation. So in that vein, we discussed plans for the UK Carrier Strike Group to visit during the course of 2025. We made the announcement that the Carrier will visit Australia in Darwin. It'll be the first time the UK Carrier has visited the port, docked in Australia since 1997 and I was able to thank Australia for the support they're offering throughout the Carrier Strike Group’s deployment. And crucially for us, we were able to join what is perhaps one of the most exacting military exercises that we can put our own ships, and we can put our own forces through with the Talisman Sabre exercise, which we’ll join north of Australia next year.

We’re looking to develop our defence cooperation more fully. In the year ahead, we will develop further the historic partnership that we have through AUKUS now with the US, but particularly with the UK and Australia. This is a program that will boost jobs and growth in both of our countries, as well as boosting our national security. We will in the UK look to accelerate the validation exercise that will allow Aussie firms to increasingly play a part in the supply chains in Britain to our submarine building programs now, ahead of the point at which we start also to develop and build the SSN-AUKUS submarines in the future. Why we're doing this? Because it helps wire our two countries together, it reinforces our joint commitment to the AUKUS program, and it makes that program itself more resilient and more likely to succeed.

And finally, we face a new global period of insecurity, and in this new era of global insecurity, the one thing that is certain is that our two nations could not be more secure in the partnership and the commitment they have to work together, and I thank you for that.

Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister: Thank you John, and thank you David. It's really been an enormous pleasure for Penny and I to be with you today to have such fruitful conversations as part of the second AUKMIN of this year. This morning, I had the distinct honour of being presented, by John, the Victoria Cross which was awarded to Private Richard Norden for actions that occurred in May of 1968 in the Battle of Fire Support Base Coral, in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. We did that presentation in the office of the Duke of Wellington, and so there was some history to that. This is the 103rd Victoria Cross which has been awarded to an Australian. The first was awarded in July of 1900 to Neville Howse, for actions that took place in that month, six months before Australia federated. And of course, as people know, the Victoria Cross, the actual medal is fashioned out of metal that is taken from two or three, I think, captured cannons of Russia during the Crimea War. The history of Victoria Cross in so many ways speaks to the history and the depth of the relationship between our two defence forces, between our two militaries. As I said, it extends prior to the formation of Australia itself. And this is the most significant, the oldest, the deepest defence relationship that we have had. And perhaps because of that, the legal underpinning of it had never really been put in place until this year. It was at the AUKMIN in Adelaide at the beginning of this year that we signed the Defence and Security Cooperation Agreement, which, as we've observed in this AUKMIN, will be ratified shortly within both of our systems. During the course of this year, we've also put in place the interim submarine cooperation and delivery arrangement, which is underpinning the day-to-day workings of the AUKUS arrangement between our two countries. In August of this year, we signed the trilateral treaty agreement between Australia, the UK and the United States, which gives expression to the optimal pathway that we announced in March of last year. We've also announced that there will be a bilateral expression of that treaty, through a treaty that will be negotiated between Australia and the United Kingdom. Progress on that has been very satisfactory, and today we can say that we look forward to being able to sign that treaty in the coming months.

All of that speaks to the fact that the AUKMINs which have occurred in the course of this year are really putting in place the legal underpinnings of the oldest defence relationship that Australia has: with the United Kingdom. And befitting that relationship and the legal underpinning that we have put in place, what we are also seeing and what we’ve discussed today is an increased tempo in the operations and the exercises which are occurring between our two defence forces. As John said, next year we will see the UK Carrier Strike Group come to the Indo-Pacific, which will have a huge impact. They will participate in Exercise Talisman Sabre, which is the signature exercise which occurs for the Australian Defence Force and this will be the biggest presence of the UK at Talisman Sabre in the history of this exercise. The Carrier Strike Group will also participate in Exercise Bersama Lima, which is the signature exercise of the Five Powers Defence Arrangement, the unilateral arrangement which involves both the United Kingdom and Australia within the Indo-Pacific, along with Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand. Today, we can announce that there will be a number of Australian elements participating in the Carrier Strike Group, which will include, at times, HMAS Sydney and Brisbane, two destroyers, which will participate in the Carrier Strike Group’s activities. This builds on work which occurred this year with Exercise Predators Run, which saw UK Marines training with the Australian Army in littoral exercises, which is so important in terms of developing the mobile Army which Australia needs. We're seeing increased cooperation between our defence forces in the joint operations space and special forces, across our intelligence agencies, including ASD, the Australian Signals Directorate and GCHQ here in the United Kingdom.

As John said, part of this is the work that we are doing together in the support of Ukraine. In 2022 we first announced that Australia would participate in Operation Interflex, which sees the training of soldiers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Today, we're announcing that we will extend our participation in Operation Interflex through till the end of 2025 as part of an ongoing contribution that we continue to make to the support of Ukraine. And we do so very much with the leadership of the United Kingdom, and with the guidance of United Kingdom in terms of how Australia can best contribute to supporting Ukraine in its conflict.

Finally, we discussed AUKUS today and the really considerable progress which is being made and has been made over the course of the last three years. Again, as John said, we are looking at how we can accelerate the process by which Australian companies can be certified to contribute to the supply chain here in the United Kingdom for building of the Astute class program, which will be really Important. We've also looked at how we can develop and bring to conclusion very quickly the build schedule for the build of SSN-AUKUS in Adelaide. As part of this, we are establishing the submarine Programme Interface Office, which will be based in Bristol. In the coming months, we’ll see about a dozen Australians participating in that program office, which will be really essential in terms of managing the day-to-day delivery of AUKUS Pillar One. There is much more that we discussed in the course of today, but all of that speaks to the fact that with our oldest relationship, with the United Kingdom, we now in 2024 have very much a strategic dimension to that relationship which is very profound and makes this one of the most significant relationships that Australia has with any country in the world. For Penny and I, we feel very grateful we are able to manage that relationship with both David and John in what has been an exceedingly productive conversation.

Secretary Lammy: Thank you very much. Now, questions from the media. We've got Deborah Haynes at Sky News.

Journalist: Obviously, there's a lot of news today about this alleged Chinese spy. How worried are you that Yang Tenbo is just the tip of the iceberg and that actually the British public can expect many more Chinese nationals being banned from travelling to the UK. And if I may, just on Syria, please, you said that the UK can engage diplomatically with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, this rebel group that led the taking of Damascus. Can you give a bit more detail about that? What does that engagement look like? Are you talking to members of the transitional government? If I may have a question for the Australian Foreign Minister, please. Obviously, Australia understands fully the threat posed by China, but as well, it's a big economic power and there is a need for dialogue. The UK Government is undertaking a review, a China audit of its policy on China. But given that Donald Trump is about to return to the White House and given his very strong view on seeing China as a threat, is it delusional to think that you can have any kind of meaningful, positive relationship with Beijing when a core member of the AUKUS trilateral alliance is Donald Trump and the United States?

Secretary Lammy: I think that’s three questions. But we will attempt to answer them. Could I begin on Syria – I can confirm today that we have sent a delegation of senior UK officials to Damascus this week for meetings with the new interim Syrian authorities and members of civil society groups in Syria. And it underlies our commitment to Syria. Yesterday I announced a £50m package of humanitarian aid. Also further money to help secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria. It was important that we were represented in Aqaba at the weekend. We confirm, of course, our support for the principles that have been set out, an inclusive, transitional political process that is Syrian-led and Syrian-owned.

On China, I welcome the court's decision to uphold the Home Office’s position on Yang's exclusion. And where individuals pose a threat, as you would expect, the UK government is absolutely committed to using the full range of powers available to disrupt them. I raised these issues when I was in Beijing a few weeks ago. This case does not exist, sadly, in a vacuum. The UK is in the most complex threat environment that we've seen for a very significant time, including terrorism and states including China, Iran and Russia that pose a threat to us. Six individuals have been charged under our National Security Act to date. So, we recognise the threat, we've raised it with the Chinese Government and, and we will act wherever we need to.

Foreign Minister: Thank you. So, I think the question goes to given that President-elect Trump has articulated his view about the US competition with China, what are the implications for the rest of us? I think we're very clear-eyed about our relationship China. I described it in various ways: cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, engage in our national interest – and that reflects the reality of the relationship, which is there are areas where we can cooperate, where we do engage economically, where we do engage on other areas, but also recognises there are areas where we are going to disagree because of who we are and because of our interests.

I think it's important for us all to bring a degree of realism to the relationship with China. The first is China, as I've said publicly, China is going to continue to be China, and we understand China is doing what great powers do. We, from Australia's perspective, and this one in part, we are here – we want to work with others to uphold our interests. Secondly, China is not going anywhere. It will continue to be a very important part of the global economy and of the strategic landscape of the globe. And we also have to, we deal with that reality as well in the way we approach our relationship with China, but also how we approach our relationship with others in support of strategic stability in our region.

Secretary Lammy: Ben Downie, Seven News Australia. 

Journalist: Minister Wong, is Yang Tengbo currently able to enter Australia or is he already under a travel ban? And given the history of Chinese foreign interference in Australian institutions, at these talks are we able to share any experience or strategies and tactics with your foreign counterparts? And on Syria as well, have you engaged at all with HTS?

Foreign Minister: In relation to the first, obviously that's a decision for the Home Affairs Minister but I can say to you that for some time now Australia has understood that the resilience of our democracy is an important part of assuring our democracy, regardless of the ways in which the vectors by which the resilience might be tested. We put in place on a bipartisan process when we were in Opposition and I was part of the Intelligence Committee which recommended this, foreign interference legislation and a framework to do with foreign interference. So, we have a degree of experience, there's always a lot more to do, but a degree of experience in how we seek to regulate the engagement that you described and to assure ourselves that the democracy is resilient.

In terms of Syria, no, not to my knowledge. We obviously did discuss the leadership role that the United Kingdom plays in the Middle East and the events in Syria today.

Secretary Lammy: Danielle Sheridan at the Telegraph.

Journalist: Foreign Secretary, do you think that Prince Andrew would reveal, should reveal, any money he’s received as a result of dealings with the alleged spy?

Secretary Lammy: This is a serious matter. whilst we have been conducting AUKMIN today there has clearly been a statement in the Parliament. The National Security Minister has dealt with issues that have arisen from parliamentarians, and I underline what I have said: we have a National Security Act, six individuals have been detained under that act. This is an issue that I raised when I was in Beijing, and I am content that the system, in response to what we have found, has acted appropriately on behalf of the British people.

Rob Harris, correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Journalist: Secretary Healey and Minister Marles, if possible, on Ukraine, given attention is now turning into a potential peace deal, we know what President Zelenskyy has put down in terms of that, do you see peacekeeping troops, European peacekeeping troops, as essential to that security guarantee that President Zelenskyy is asking for? Does that include British troops? And Minister Marles, how far, given the involvement of China and North Korea in the Ukrainian conflict, how far is Australia prepared to go in contributing to any, sort of, peacekeeping action and would that include troops?

Secretary Healey: So it is important to get ahead of ourselves. I’m explaining what Ukraine is facing now. Our task and our duty now is to support Ukraine in every way that we can to resist the Russian offensive, to hold and retake its ground and to put itself in the strongest possible position if President Zelenskyy decides to start talking as well, or instead of, fighting. When that moment comes, our job as allied nations that stand steadfast with Ukraine is to support them in any negotiations, just as we will through battlefield fighting. And one of the important things that we discussed today, that we have affirmed publicly, is our commitment to stand with Ukraine throughout 2025. It’s designed to reinforce the confidence of the Ukrainian people that it has allies in the West, that we would stand with them as long as it takes. And it's designed also in a message to Putin that he cannot prevail, he will not prevail and Ukraine will have our support for as long as it needs.

Deputy Prime Minister: John really has answered the question. I mean, our focus right now is on supporting Ukraine now, such that it can resolve this conflict on its terms. And we spoke a lot about this during the course of today’s meeting. In fact, during the course of this year, Australia has committed $650 million of support to Ukraine, which is about half the military support that we have committed to Ukraine since the beginning of the war. So that actually represents an increased tempo, if you like, of the comments that we have made. And we spoke a lot about how we can continue to provide support during the course of 2025 and the announcement that we will continue, or extend our contribution to Operation Interflex is an example of that. But we will continue to look at ways in which we can support Ukraine for as long as it takes and we work really closely with the UK in terms of what that then looks like. And obviously we work closely with Ukraine itself, but the role that has been played by the United Kingdom in support of Ukraine, I think, has been inspirational, as has, of course, the resistance has been shown by Ukraine itself. We have greatly appreciated Britain’s leadership in the way in which it has convened support around the world, including Australia, for Ukraine and we’ll continue to work with Britain in terms of what support we can continue to provide.

Secretary Lammy: Thank you very much indeed.