Press conference, Washington DC

Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Thanks very much for being here, and I'm sorry that I'm a little late because the bilateral with Secretary Rubio went later than we anticipated and I do have, after this, an engagement with Friends of Australia Caucus but I will try and take some questions. Obviously, it's been a great day. It's been a day of productive meetings, a fantastic opportunity for Australia's Foreign Minister to be here on the first full day of the Trump administration. And, you know, we begin the work we will do together to deliver for the Australian people and for the American people alike.

I've just come from my meeting, as I said, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It was very warm and constructive. It was the first official engagement or first official bilateral engagement – obviously we had the Quad meeting ahead of that – and we spoke about our shared interest and ambition, the strength of our alliance, the importance of our economic partnership, the work we're doing together with the United Kingdom through AUKUS, and of course critical minerals which has been an issue that he and the President have spoken about.

We also met, as you know, with our counterparts from Japan and India, the first Quad Foreign Ministers' meeting with the new administration. And I want to say how important it was for that meeting to take place. It was important for what we discussed and, as important, it was a signal of the priority that the Trump administration places on the Indo-Pacific – and this is a good thing for Australia's interests.

I also had the opportunity to meet this morning with the US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and we also discussed our interests, our shared interests when it comes to security and economic prosperity. I was really pleased to meet him so early. In fact, we had such an early meeting, the moving van was still in the driveway at the West Wing when we came out of our meeting.

So, I think across the span of the alliance, there's a great deal of optimism and confidence about the opportunities ahead. And I am really privileged to have had this level of engagement so early in the new administration. And I thank them for that courtesy and for the privilege, particularly of attending the President's inauguration. Happy to take questions.

Journalist: Did the Quad Ministers manage to figure out a time in place for the Quad leaders to meet? Was that on the agenda today?

Foreign Minister: Certainly, we discussed future meetings, both for Foreign Ministers and for leaders, and I'm sure officials will work to look at what can be achieved. We also talked about the importance of making sure we continue to have a very clear and focused strategic agenda for the Quad.

Journalist: Did you seek any further assurances from the Secretary of State beyond what he said in his confirmation hearing last week about the security of AUKUS going into the future under this administration?

Foreign Minister: Obviously, we discussed AUKUS and it was a very positive discussion. And I refer you again to the testimony of the Secretary which reflected his comments, his discussion with me today, that AUKUS is an investment in security and stability in the region. It's a demonstration of the way in which partnerships can be utilised to improve and enhance the security of the region and of the countries involved. And I think it's been really clear that the Trump administration understands the strategic imperative around AUKUS, which is why the government is so committed to it.

Journalist: I understand you're off to Auschwitz next –

Foreign Minister: Sorry, you got two.

Journalist: I haven't had one yet.

Foreign Minister: Oh sorry, my apologies. Yes, Tom?

Journalist: You're off to Auschwitz next week. The original Home Affairs email to delegates said Sue Lines was going to be the lead delegate. Are you able to say when and why that changed? Because she said before the 2022 election that Israel was effectively carrying out apartheid. Would it have been inappropriate for her to go?

Foreign Minister: Look, my recollection of this is I understood Mark Dreyfus was going to attend the commemoration. I indicated late last year that if I could attend as well, I would. And we did make that decision, I think, just around Christmas, perhaps, and communicated it after the shutdown. So, Mr Dreyfus, obviously, he and I had spoken about his attendance, which is an important thing, but can I say more broadly about why this is so important? Particularly given that we've seen some of the antisemitism at home. It is a reminder of what occurred during World War II. The hatred, prejudice, the dehumanisation and the murder of over a million people and a million Jews [at Auschwitz] was something humanity should never forget. It tells us something about where hatred leads. So I'm very honoured to be able to go with Mark and others. And this is a part of history we should not forget

Journalist: Minister, you having been in the meetings you've just been in, would have a better appreciation than almost anyone as to how significant yesterday's change of Presidents was for Australia. It's your job to know that, having been in the meetings, what's the most significant change for Australia in the change of administration out of yesterday?

Foreign Minister: Okay I think that was a flattering way of asking the same question, which is could you comment – could I get involved in some commentary, but can I make some observations which are consistent with what I've said? President Trump has made it clear that he is going to do things differently. He did so in his first term and he campaigned on taking a different approach on many matters, some of them domestic and some of them international.

So, you know, we should not be surprised if he implements that agenda. We should also have some confidence in our capacity as a nation to navigate those challenges, to engage with the administration and to talk through at very many different levels of the new administration, talk about the issues that are relevant to Australia's interests. And that's why I'm here. And so I'm very pleased that we've been able to engage at such a senior level and so early.

Journalist. So, what difference matters to us Minister? Which of the differences in the administration are you really exercised by?

Foreign Minister: I don't know that I'm exercised. I recognise that there are things that matter to Australia, our national security interests and our economic interests, and I will continue to advocate for them.

Journalist: Did you discuss Ambassador Rudd's tenure at all with the Secretary of State?

Foreign Minister: It did not come up.

Journalist: Okay, did you leave that meeting more satisfied or less satisfied that we will escape the heavy hand of trade tariffs?

Foreign Minister: I have focused very much on articulating why Australia's economic relationship with the United States is of benefit to the United States as well as to Australia. That is recognised, focused on the benefit that the economic partnership brings in particular sectors to the United States. And that is recognised. And what I would say, and I understand that people are very focused on this, every new US administration has had a view about trade policy. And every Australian government in office at a time where a new administration has come in has had to navigate those trade policy issues. And this is no different.

I'd refer you, for example, not only to the FTA negotiations many years ago, but I'd refer you to the first Trump administration and the challenges that had to be navigated by the then-Turnbull Government. What I can say to Australians is we will work consistently, confidently, with a very clear focus on Australia's interests to navigate any trade issues.

Journalist: The Secretary of State said that there will be big changes in the State Department and he was voted in 99 to 0. So, that's obviously a fairly collective sort of sense of pluralism there. Do you get any sense that the US and Australia are going to have more to do with each other when it comes to technology and surveillance and getting ahead of the curve when it comes to technologies like satellites and so forth, especially when it comes to what the Quad wants to put on its agenda?

Foreign Minister: Well, first, in relation to Senator or Secretary Rubio's confirmation 99 to 0, I did comment to him that that was a pretty impressive mandate. I'm not sure what historical precedent there is to it, but it was very impressive and says something about the respect with which he is held by all sides of politics here. And that is a good thing for us and I think a good thing for the administration.

The second point I'd make is we see this alliance and this partnership as being multidimensional and our interests are aligned and are intertwined and are interlocked across a number of domains, broadly national security and strategic and as well as economic. Now, some of the points that you raise go to what we might now start to consider as being part of those domains. So, of course we will continue to engage with them on new opportunities and new challenges.

Journalist: Could you expand on the discussions around critical minerals? Does Australia look to increase trade with critical minerals to the US?

Foreign Minister: Look, there's been a lot of discussion, both in the Trump administration, members of the Trump administration, but also the previous administration and in Australia, about the importance of critical minerals. They are important to where our economies are going, where the global economies are going. And we know these are areas in which there are, you know, very limited supply chains. And so it's no secret that Australia is keen to look at how we might develop more processing capacity in Australia for the critical minerals which we do have. And the Prime Minister's Future Made in Australia agenda has that very much at its heart.

Journalist: You mentioned earlier that this obviously was the first bilateral for the new Secretary meeting with Australia's Foreign Minister, hours after being sworn in himself.

Foreign Minister: I think I was second after External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, so I was his number two.

Journalist: What do you read into the importance of Australia and the United States meeting so early in the Trump administration? And from your government's perspective, how much importance are you placing on the relationship you're going to strike with Marco Rubio as to how the government can work with Donald Trump?

Foreign Minister: I think what it says is that this alliance matters and this relationship matters. And I think what it says is the Quad set of engagements, the Quad partnership matters.

Journalist: Have you ever been excited about selling half of TikTok?

Journalist: Will Australia call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America?

Foreign Minister: Which one should I take first? In relation to TikTok, we've already gone through a process, our own process in relation to how we handle that platform, which you'd be aware of. I think those announcements were made over 18 months ago now maybe, certainly over a year ago, and you know, I'm not going to comment on the domestic decisions that the President makes.

Journalist: A question on the Quad, Minister.

Foreign Minister: Sure.

Journalist: Over the last few years of the Quad, it hasn't had an overt defence focus and some have made the point that they would like to see it do that. Did you get the sense from the Secretary that he would like to expand the Quad's focus to take a more assertive role on matters of defence and security in Indo-Pacific?

Foreign Minister: I certainly got a sense from all of our discussion that we think more ambition in what the Quad does is a good thing – the form of that is something that will be discussed.

Journalist: I know you're a person of nuance so 'drill, baby, drill' maybe isn't something you'd take seriously just yet, but America is pulling out –

Foreign Minister: Did you just give me an almost compliment?

Journalist: I think so. But they are pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the US. Are you worried momentum will be lost? It's so critical at this juncture if it's going to succeed.

Foreign Minister: President Trump's position on exiting Paris is long standing. Australia also has long standing positions when it comes to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and other matters.

Journalist: Minister at home, federal police are investigating whether overseas actors have paid Australian criminals locally to carry out antisemitic attacks. Are you aware, has this been raised in the context of any of your meetings? And is there anything you can add to the fact that that investigation is happening?

Foreign Minister: No. And the only thing I would add is just to reiterate again, what I have said on many occasions, which is that these attacks of hate, these attacks on places of worship, the antisemitic slogans, the torching of homes or cars or premises, this is not only an attack on the Jewish community, it is an attack on who we are as Australians. And we all have to stand in defence of those values which I have advocated for my whole political life, which go to respect, acceptance and inclusion, because that is the foundation of a multicultural Australia.

Journalist: Just a very quick question, we reported today that Ambassador Rudd met with a rabbi here in Washington who wanted the message passed on to the government that these protests should be moved out of Melbourne's CBD. Do you know what that message has been? Has that message come to the government? Will you act on it?

Foreign Minister: Well, I haven't engaged with Ambassador Rudd about this, but what I would say is people have a right not only to be safe, but to feel safe. Thank you very much.