Sarah Abo: Well, the Foreign Minister has faced a big diplomatic test this morning, meeting with her Quad counterparts as the PM waits to secure a face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. Penny Wong joins us live now from Washington D.C. Penny, good morning to you. Good to see you. You've been dubbed Penny the Peacemaker. Aside from your own responsibilities, have you had any luck inching the PM closer to that meeting with Trump?
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Look, we've had an excellent set of meetings today. I was really pleased to be in Washington for the second time this year. Obviously, I was very honoured to be invited for the inauguration and the first Quad meeting which Secretary Marco Rubio hosted just about an hour and a half after being sworn in in January. And we're back here again and it was an excellent meeting this morning. It reminded us of how much our four nations share, how we can work together to meet the urgent challenges we face. I also had really good bilateral meetings, that's individual meetings, with Japan, with India and obviously also with Secretary of State Rubio.
Sarah Abo: Penny, I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that you are the hardest working Minister. Absolutely. In this government trying to mend ties with your US counterparts.
Foreign Minister: Please don't say that in front of my - don't tell my colleagues that – you'll make me very unpopular.
Sarah Abo: No, you're very popular. I mean, you've been in the US more than most of them, right? And we all saw that selfie of you with Ambassador Kevin Rudd. But let's be honest here, is he the issue preventing this meet up with our Prime Minister? We know Trump didn't take too kindly to his comments that he's made in the past.
Foreign Minister: You know, I can tell you honestly, the issues that you're describing are not raised with me here, nor are they reflected in the warmth of the engagement that I've had here, not just on this occasion, but when I was last here in January. And now obviously Secretary Rubio and I discussed the meetings, the meeting between the Prime Minister and the President -
Sarah Abo: When is that going to happen?
Foreign Minister: And just as he, as he did, and just as he did when he spoke to me after the G7, Secretary Rubio expects-
Sarah Abo: But we don't have a date though. That's the problem isn't it, Minister?
Foreign Minister: Sorry. Please let me finish. He expressed his regret for the fact that the meeting had to be rescheduled. And I obviously said, well, we completely understood. I think the world understood the President had a fair bit to do ahead of what was, given what was occurring in the Middle East. We are working together on rescheduling the meeting. We're both looking forward to the President and the Prime Minister meeting.
Sarah Abo: It has been seven months though, and this is the issue, I think, you know, when you talk about the importance between the Australian and US alliance, if the Prime Minister and the President haven't yet met, that does not bode well. I mean, you might call it a media beat up and perhaps the average Australian doesn't care. But ultimately this is one of our most important relationships on very many fronts, as you well know.
Foreign Minister: Yeah, it is our most important strategic relationship and that's why you've seen me come firstly for the President's inauguration and meet with my counterpart. That's why you've seen the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence here. That's why you've seen Jim Chalmers here. It's why the Prime Minister has spoken to the President on at least two occasions and it's why we will have a meeting. It's unfortunate that the meeting at the G7 had to be cancelled. Again, I appreciated the fact that Secretary Rubio expressed the regret for that. But now these things do happen, and we do know what was happening in the Middle East.
Sarah Abo: Alright, so as it stands today, it doesn't look like we're any closer to that face-to-face meeting. But let's move on to the Quad meeting. The defence, of course has been the focus of this specific-
Foreign Minister: I'm not sure that's right.
Sarah Abo: Well, is there? I mean, you haven't been able to confirm that, which I understand you've got other things to focus on as well.
Foreign Minister: Well because, with respect, you know, obviously we're working on rescheduling it and that's what we're doing.
Sarah Abo: All right. Defence – the focus of this meeting that you're there for. We know the US obviously expects us to lift our defence spending. You have now spoken; you've met with Marco Rubio for more than 45 minutes. Did he indicate by how much he'd like to see us increase defence by?
Foreign Minister: Well, Secretary Rubio didn't raise Australia's defence budget with me. What we did talk about –
Sarah Abo: In forty-five minutes?
Foreign Minister: What we did talk about was the work we're doing together. Well, I'm telling you, we talked about the work we are doing together, and we are doing a lot together. And we spoke about the range of ways in which, as allies and partners, we work together in our region for strategic stability, and that matters. We spoke about AUKUS, we spoke about the positive benefits to both our countries, all three countries in AUKUS, as a consequence of that partnership.
Sarah Abo: Has there been any clarity when it comes to AUKUS about the deal and whether the Trump administration has finished its review of it?
Foreign Minister: We obviously did talk about AUKUS. It's a very important partnership. We spoke about the benefits it brings both our countries as well as the United Kingdom. It's a good deal for all three countries. And we understand that this is normal practice for a new administration to want to look at these sorts of agreements. As I've said to you before, I think, Sarah, this is an agreement that will, you know, has to be worked on and secured by many administrations and many Australian Governments, because it's a multi-decade agreement and we're determined to do that. And Secretary Rubio understands very clearly the benefit of this partnership to the United States.
Sarah Abo: All of that and we still haven't got to tariffs. But, Penny, you are a very busy woman. Good luck over there. And we'll chat again soon, no doubt.