High-level consultations in Washington

Today I met with senior White House and USA national security officials to discuss our shared challenges in combatting terrorism at home and abroad.

Meetings with National Security Agency director Admiral Michael Rogers, CIA director John Brennan and National Intelligence director Lt Gen James Clapper provided an important opportunity to consolidate the high-level counter-terrorism engagement and intelligence cooperation between our two countries.

Australia and the United States are deeply concerned about citizens heading overseas to fight with terrorists. I discussed shared strategies to combat the phenomenon of foreign fighters and developments in our joint efforts to disrupt and degrade ISIL in Iraq.

There is no more pressing matter of national and international security than reducing the threat from terrorism, including from foreign fighters.

I toured USAID's Global Innovation Lab and discussed its work in fostering science and technology-based solutions to the problems of poverty and economic growth in developing countries. I met with the Lab's executive director Ann Mei Chang to discuss plans for Australia's own development innovation hub scheduled to open in March this year.

I also hosted a roundtable on the topic of promoting the private sector's role in overseas development. It is important that Australia implements a bold and forward-looking vision for Australian aid with an unmistakable focus on our immediate Indo-Pacific region. Innovation is a fundamental part of the new aid paradigm I announced last June.

This evening I was a guest of the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner at President Obama's State of the Union address.