PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, I'm sorry to have to hold this press conference so late, the Dialogue went over but thanks very much for joining me. Earlier this evening, I co-chaired the eighth Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue with China's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi and I thank the Foreign Minister for his warm welcome to Beijing. It's my third official visit to China as Foreign Minister, and this was our 11th meeting, and we appreciated the engagement and the discussion. Australia is calm and consistent in our approach to China, and our realism informs the way in which we work to stabilise our relationship with China without compromising on those matters which are important to Australians. We recognise that dialogue does not eliminate our differences, but it does enable us to manage them, and we firmly believe that a stable and constructive relationship is in the interests of both Australia and China.
As we consistently say, Australia will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest. This dialogue was a further opportunity for the Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, and I to exchange views on bilateral issues, on regional issues and on international issues, so that we can better pursue Australia's objective, which is always to build peace, stability and prosperity in our region.
Of course, the context to our region is the unprecedented disruption to global markets, particularly global energy markets, caused by the conflict in the Middle East, and in particular, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. And as I have said, this is a conflict and a shock to energy markets, which is disproportionately affecting our region – whilst 20 per cent of the world's oil transits the Strait of Hormuz, some 80 per cent transit, that is of our oil, that is oil that comes to our region, goes through that Strait.
As I said in my opening remarks of the Dialogue, it is more important than ever for countries of the region to work together, to coordinate our responses and to keep fuel and goods flowing. I made the point that the inputs China supplies to Australia, including jet fuel, support the Australian resources sector, which in turn helps to maintain the flow of commodities that are so important in the bilateral trading relationship.
Following Prime Minister Albanese’s discussions with Premier Li, where they agreed to increase communication and coordination on energy security, I can confirm that the Chinese Government is facilitating engagement with Australian businesses on jet fuel, and I expressed my appreciation of this cooperation to Minister Wang this evening. We are committed to working with China to further areas of practical cooperation, including in energy security, and, of course, supporting China to host APEC this year.
We were able to speak frankly, as we do, about those areas of difference, including consular issues, human rights, foreign interference, and regional and international security.
I'm happy to take questions. Lisa?
JOURNALIST: Were you able to get any, I know you spoke then about confirmation that China would work with Australian businesses in getting access to jet fuel, were you able to get any confirmation about when the fuels will start flowing, how much, those sorts of details?
FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, as I said, this follows the Prime Minister's discussion with Premier Li, where we sought further cooperation and further engagement. I can confirm, as I have, that the Chinese Government is facilitating engagement with Australian businesses on jet fuel. This is an important step however, it is the first step.
JOURNALIST: Are you able to say which businesses, which sector, in particular?
FOREIGN MINISTER: As I said, those are commercial engagements, but we believe this is an important step but it is the first step.
JOURNALIST: Foreign Minister, during your discussions, did Australia's deepening security relationship with Japan arise?
FOREIGN MINISTER: We spent quite a number of hours obviously, so there were a lot of topics to discuss. You would anticipate that regional security is one of the issues that was discussed, and we have a very clear view, we have a Special Strategic Partnership with Japan. That is an important partnership to us, and it is a partnership which is directed at working together for shared prosperity, for peace and stability in the region.
JOURNALIST: I would really like to know a lot more, or as much as you can say, in relation to this engagement that's been occurring with the Australian businesses. Does this mean Australians can take comfort in incoming oil in the near future?
FOREIGN MINISTER: The whole reason I'm here is to try and press for, advocate for, Australia’s interests, and in particular, for the commission of liquid fuels. And as you and I discussed today, and as I discussed with the Foreign Minister, we receive diesel, jet fuel, petrol, fertiliser, and it comes back to the region in all the ways that we know – in our LNG exports, our coal exports, our commodities exports, our food exports. So there is, it is important to see that we all benefit from this foreign trade. I'm not able to give you much more than I have Yoni, and that's because we are at the first step, which is the agreement to facilitate engagement with our businesses on jet fuel, as I said to your colleague, this is a very important step, it is the first step, because what we want to see is those engagements continue and commercial contracts to flow.
JOURNALIST: Is there a concern that Australia might becoming reliant on China for fuel, especially as we've seen in the past, that China has been willing to make, you know, limited supply based on political decisions, is that a concern?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I think we're all concerned by the impact on global market, energy markets, and what it has meant for all of our economies and I think what this has shown us is how vulnerable so many economies are to the conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait and the numbers demonstrate that. 20 per cent of global oil, that's a big enough shock to energy markets, 80 per cent of the oil to the region is a pretty big shock to the regional economies and China and Australia are both regional economies so we all want to see the Strait open. We want to see this resolved, and we are all very keenly aware of what this says about the impact to the whole region, of the shock to energy markets.
JOURNALIST: Foreign Minister, Reuters reported today that the Chinese Government began issuing some licenses for state oil companies to export fuels in May. Does Australia expect that we’ll be the recipient of some of those fuel shipments, given the conversation you had today with the Foreign Minister?
FOREIGN MINISTER: We'll keep advocating for Australian businesses and the Australian economy to have access to liquid fuels, and as I've repeatedly said, we see mutual benefit in that occurring given how those inputs contribute to Australia's reliability as a supplier to the region.
JOURNALIST: A couple of questions, one, could you talk to your conversation with the Foreign Minister on the strategy to try to deescalate the situation in the Middle East and reopen the Strait, anything concrete that you’ve seen that you can share?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I think the whole world is looking to, for there to be deescalation. We have called for, Australia has been clear about our position, we have, we've called for deescalation, we've called for the Strait to be opened and for freedom of navigation within the Strait to occur. Obviously, we see that, we want the negotiations between the US and Iran to proceed and be successful, and you would expect that progress of those was an issue discussed.
JOURNALIST: There is a group of Australian women and children in Syria and the Syrian Government is saying that they cannot come back to Australia. So is there any possibility that the Australian Government is going to let them come back to Australia and, you know, what's going to happen, they're going to be indefinitely in Syria?
FOREIGN MINISTER: The Australian Government's made its position in relation to these individuals very clear that we are not assisting in their repatriation but in terms of some of those details, I'm sure that you’ll pursue them with the Ministry of Home Affairs in Australia.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask you, Foreign Minister, about the upcoming Xi-Trump summit here in Beijing, specifically, in regards to Iran. Do you expect that China, China's President Xi Jinping, will have any message on Iran? That's my first question on this and then, does Australia consider the summit important for regional security and trade issues?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I’m going to start with the last. It is important to the world to have the US and China speaking and engaging clearly, to deal with any issues between them in a way that is conducive to peace and stability and prosperity for the world matters to all of us. So we welcome the dialogue with President Trump seeking to come to China to speak with President Xi at this summit, that dialogue is a good thing.
JOURNALIST: Minister you've made the point several times that as Australia is dependent on China for imports of fuel, China is also reliant on Australia for goods like iron ore, coal, LNG, and you raise this issue with the Foreign Minister. How did he respond to your framing of the issue that way?
FOREIGN MINISTER: Well, I think it's up to, I don't think I can speak for Foreign Minister Wang Yi, but I hope that one of the things that we have achieved in these discussions and in our engagement with the countries of the region, because obviously, I'm here in North Asia, going to Japan, here in China, and then to Korea tomorrow, but we have previously been in Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore. I hope one of the messages that Australia is articulating is the extent to which our energy security is shared. And the nature of the supply chains in the region are that energy, energy supplies to us impact upon our capacity to provide other energy and other commodities to the region. So I think that that the shared nature of energy security is a consistent message for from Australia, comes from a recognition of both how we deal with the conflict and the difficulties now, but also recognising there will be a long tail to this. This coordination is going to be required for some time, and part of how we do that is face to face dialogue as well as the coordination of resources.
JOURNALIST: Does Australia have a view on what role it would like to see China play in terms of helping to resolve the Strait of Hormuz crisis and perhaps helping to get it open?
FOREIGN MINISTER: I think the, Australia wants the Strait of Hormuz open alongside, along with, many other countries and we see that the most, the best way for, the pathway to that, obviously requires the negotiations between the US and Iran to be successful. We hope to see those negotiations be successful. Thanks once again.