SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG
LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Subjects: ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting; ASEAN-Australia relationship; Southeast Asia Economic Strategy; Australia-Laos relationship.

SOUPHAKSONE SILAPHET, HOST: Hello Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Share with us, why is the relationship important for Australia, especially in the region? And how is it beneficial for the region as well, and Australia?

PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: Australia has always understood the centrality of ASEAN, and when I'm asked about ASEAN’s centrality, I make this point. If you're in Australia and you look up to the world, the first thing you see is ASEAN. So, for us, ASEAN’s centrality is something we deeply understand because of our geography, because of our history.

ASEAN is central to the region in which we live, and it is central to a stable, peaceful and prosperous region, which we all want. That's why Australia has been a Dialogue Partner for so long. In fact, we were ASEAN’s first Dialogue Partner and we're very proud of that history.

But we don't just look to history, we also look to the future. And as you point out, the Special Summit was an opportunity not only to celebrate half a century of working together, but also to listen to ASEAN leaders and officials about how they envisage the next decades and to start to put together the plan for the years ahead. And we're very pleased to have done that. We're very pleased to be a Comprehensive Strategic Partner of ASEAN.

SILAPHET: And, of course, being here, and of course in the past 50 years of bilateral relations with ASEAN, what are some of the initiatives that Australia and ASEAN has put forward? And of course, especially moving up to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with ASEAN.

FOREIGN MINISTER: I said yesterday when I spoke with ASEAN Ministers that Australia seeks to be a responsive and practical partner. So, the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, for us, is an opportunity for us to engage very closely with ASEAN countries and listen to them about what their priorities are, and to do what Australians are good at, which is to provide practical responses to those needs. And so if you look at the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and the plan of action that we put out yesterday, whether it's in the area of scholarships, in the area of supporting and enabling work on carbon neutrality, or whether it's in the area of future skills and enabling people to come to Australia to gain more digital skills – these are all priorities that have been identified to us by ASEAN leaders.

SILAPHET: Of course. And going back to the first, to the Special Summit earlier this year, there are many announcements, obviously, as a result of that. You can share with us, what is Australia doing to, I guess you say, push for implementing some of those actions?

FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes. Well, look, one of my priorities as Foreign Minister has obviously been to engage very closely with ASEAN, but has been to really focus on the economic aspect of our relationship in the countries of Southeast Asia. That's about being responsive, understanding that whether it's Lao PDR or Cambodia or Vietnam or Malaysia, the economic piece of our relationship is really important, and we need to do more.

So, one of the things we have been very focused on is how do we improve and strengthen and deepen our economic relationship with Southeast Asia, the countries of ASEAN. So, we put in place, we appointed a businessperson, a very senior businessperson, to do an economic strategy. And much of what we announced at the summit were practical measures associated with that economic strategy. And I'll just give you a couple of highlights. $2 billion in an infrastructure financing facility. Very important because we understand the infrastructure needs of the region. Secondly, longer term business visas. And that enables businesspeople to go backwards and forwards in and out of the country. That connectivity really matters. And of course, also what we call Deal Teams. So, these are people who can work with multiple partners to put together financing arrangements for infrastructure. We're really pleased that we already have three Deal Teams up and running in Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, and Singapore.

SILAPHET: Excellent. And, of course, in the government’s bilateral relationship with the Laos Government. Can you share with us – of course, during the visit, during the Special Summit we have also signed a comprehensive agreement partnership in March as well. Can you share with us some of the – how have you been able to strengthen the relations with our two countries?

FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, the Prime Minister was very pleased to sign with your Prime Minister a Comprehensive Partnership. It's an elevation in our relationship and something that the Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Saleumxay and I have been, have been working on for some time, and we’re very pleased that that has occurred.

What that means is our relationship is deeper; what that means is we will work more closely on implementing a number of aspects of assistance. Just a couple of examples. We provided more development assistance to help with dengue outbreaks. It's obviously an issue. And in the excess of $200 million to the Mekong region to provide support there. One of the projects I'm very pleased - that we are going to roll out is a project that demonstrates some of Australia's capacity in agriculture, improving what we call fish ladders to improve fish stock in the Mekong, as well as environmental – environmental sustainability. So, we're very pleased to work with Lao PDR and the other countries in the Mekong region.

SILAPHET: And in correlation to that, the Mekong-Australia, there has been a significant investment announcement – investment, over 200 million Australian dollars in the Mekong partnership. How are some of the priorities for the second phase of Australia’s work with the Mekong partnership?

FOREIGN MINISTER: Yeah, well, I think one of the things we have to do in the Mekong is to enable more climate resilience. We know how important the Mekong is to Laos and to the other Mekong countries. And we also know that climate change is already affecting agriculture and sustainability. So, we are working at what we can do, including the area of agriculture and climate resilience.

SILAPHET: If you don't mind, I have one final question. Of course, you've visited Laos a couple of times now.

FOREIGN MINISTER: I have.

SILAPHET: And of course, seeing the country, experience the people. And, of course, back in Australia there are a large amount of Laos diaspora communities, who not only has made Australia their home, but also has contributed significantly in society, the economy. Can you share with us how important these communities is for the people-to-people relations between Laos and Australia?

FOREIGN MINISTER: There are a few things I'd say about that. First, this is a wonderful country to visit, and I'm really pleased that one of the features of the two years I've had as Australia's Foreign Minister is strengthening our relations with Lao PDR. The second thing I would say is, we're a multicultural country. Whether it's someone like me, born in Malaysia, who is now a Foreign Minister, or many other people who count their heritage and their ancestry from different parts of the world. In fact, one in two Australians is either born overseas or has a parent born overseas. That's just something about who we are.

I have said many times, part of the strength of our country is that because of that heritage from across the world, we have common ground with so many countries. And this is a great strength that Australia has, that the reality of modern Australia is that there are people who have a deep knowledge of Laos, have a deep knowledge of Vietnam, a deep knowledge of Malaysia, a deep knowledge of China. This is who Australia is. And so, we are very, very proud of not only our Lao communities, but all of the communities, the different communities who come to our country and enrich and strengthen who we are. And it does give us a very different sort of people-to-people relationship with your country and with many others, and one we’re very grateful for.

SILAPHET: Final question if you don’t mind. So, being here, participating in the ASEAN Summit, can you share with us how Laos has organised the summit –

FOREIGN MINISTER: Oh, they’ve done –

SILAPHET: How is the security, how is the situation, environment?

FOREIGN MINISTER: It's been fantastic. So, we really thank, you know, Foreign Minister Saleumxay, the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and say, it’s been so well organised, wonderful hospitality. It’s been great to be here.

ENDS

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Authorised by Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia.