Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: The first thing I want to say is that this morning we saw more Australians coming back from the Middle East, and that brings to over 10,000 the number of Australians who have returned home since this conflict began. We're very pleased to see them home, and I'm sure their families and friends are as well. So 10,000 Australians on just over 100 flights have left the Middle East since this conflict began. My message to Australians continues to be, please do not travel to the Middle East. There is still a conflict. Flights could be disrupted at very short notice. And I would also say to those who are there, do not wait until it is too late. It is always possible that commercial flights may be disrupted. We urge people to leave if it is safe to do so. Happy to take questions
Journalist: When it comes to seeking certainty from the Trump administration on the goals of this war, at what level are those assurances being sought? Is that a Leader to Leader level, is that Foreign Minister to Foreign Minister?
Foreign Minister: We engage regularly with the United States, and even you'll recall, I spoke during this conflict with Secretary Rubio. He also spoke overnight about US objectives and made clear what their military objectives continue to be, which was to degrade Iran's naval capability, aerial capability, its industrial base, that is its capacity to produce weapons and also its launch capability. What the Prime Minister has also said is that we want to see return to negotiations and de-escalation. This conflict is having such an enormous effect on global energy markets and on the global economy, of course, on the Australian community.
Journalist: Minister Wong has been any requests from the UAE to extend the Wedgetail and Australian personnel in the UAE beyond that month, and if there is, will we accept that request?
Foreign Minister: We will deal with any such request, and we will make that clear to the Australian people. But I again want to emphasise this, right from the beginning of this conflict we made clear what our position was, and that is that we would support defensive capability, but not an offensive capability. So, our posture is defensive, and we are responding to the fact that the countries of the region have seen Iran rain missiles down on them. I think it's just over 2,300 in the UAE. Remember, there are a lot of Australians in the region. We want to assist the countries of the region with their defence against missiles and drones.
Journalist: We've seen a number of high-level visits to Australia from the EU Commission President, from Mark Carney talking, and both of them have spoken, to some extent about the realignment of the world order and the creation, the alignment of middle powers as things change, let's say. What's your personal stance on this change that we're seeing in the world?
Foreign Minister: First, I've been talking about amplified middle power diplomacy for some time, and I haven't just been talking about it, but we've been engaging in it. From the very get go you've seen Australia working to strengthen relationships with other countries. So, I talk about our foreign policy has been first about the region, next about relationships, including with powers beyond our region, rules and, of course, resilience. And we've seen in this conflict why resilience is so important.
Journalist: Sure. Why not? On that, though, it seems a bit contradictory to be so closely aligned with the US, considering the hurt that is really happening across the Middle East and their involvement in conflicts throughout their broad history, how do you justify being such a close partner with them, while talking about middle powers?
Foreign Minister: America remains our most important strategic partner. What we also do is work with countries in the region and countries beyond our region to assure us our Australia's security, to assure our capacity to navigate what is a much more complicated world. Thanks very much. Thank you.