Penny Wong, Foreign Minster: Thanks very much for coming. Can I say how great it is for me to be back here in India, back in New Delhi, for the Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and also for the meeting, the Foreign Ministers' Framework Dialogue, as it's called, my meeting with External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar. Today is, I'm told, our 28th in-person meeting together, so we have spent a lot of time together, which reflects the importance of the partnership between our countries, as well as our personal friendship. This is my second visit to India in the past six months. I spoke this morning about the Quad and the outcomes we have announced earlier, so I won't go through those again, unless people want some more detail on that, but I do want to speak a little bit about the importance of the bilateral relationship between Australia and India. We are Comprehensive Strategic Partners, we have a relationship that is anchored in strategic trust, we have a great deal of strategic alignment, and our economic ties continue to deepen. India, of course, is the world's fastest growing major economy. It's an essential economic partner for Australia. As we seek to diversify supply chains and grow our economy and our productivity, this relationship only grows in importance. I made this point, we do live in a very uncertain world, and I think we've had a discussion today at the Quad about the circumstances we face in our region, a much more disrupted world, and the close cooperation between our two countries has never been more important, and this is reflected by today's announcement. My Prime Minister has today announced that Prime Minister Modi will visit Australia in the very near future. We look forward to that visit, just as I look forward to the honour of meeting with Prime Minister Modi later this afternoon. Australia and India share a vision of a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and we want to work together for our region and for our peoples. I'm happy to take questions.
Journalist: Minister, if you could talk to us a bit about what sort of discussions you had at the Quad meeting on the next Quad summit. We saw there was no mention by the foreign ministers of the summit process, although the joint statement does mention the next summit, but it does not specifically say where it would be held, unlike the last joint statement, which very specifically said it would be held in India. So, does that sort of worry you? How important it is for you to have a full leaders’ summit to be able to ensure that Quad remains relevant? And also, if I can just, you know, add to that the fact that the President travelled to China, does that worry you that it could, you know, possible sort of US-China data, and easing of tensions between them could lead to dilution of the US commitment to Quad, and sort of, you know, basically compromise the strategic rationale for Quad, which is actually, you know, balancing China out, an increasing assertive China?
Foreign Minster: Well, first, I just want to, I suppose, pull you up a bit on your last comment. I think the Quad is about strategic stability, and it is about four countries of the region, different countries, countries which are all democracies – we're obviously very different in size, Australia is the least populous member of the Quad, and obviously India is the world's largest democracy, the US is the world's greatest strategic power, and Japan is an economic power of its own right – so they're different countries, democracies who are coming together to work together for stability, for peace, and for openness, and we talk about the importance of both responding and delivering. So we are responding to the needs and calls of other countries, and we're seeking to deliver. So you've seen today the announcement in relation to Fiji, which I can say to you is very important for Fiji. You said you talked about US-China, as I've said previously, the world wants the two great powers of the US and China to work together to ensure that they can coexist peacefully, and they can manage their differences, and so that dialogue is a good thing. And in relation to the Quad, and the importance of it, this is our third Quad meeting since President Trump was elected. The first Quad meeting since the election, his election was the day just after the inauguration, I think, and Secretary Rubio has demonstrated his commitment to the Quad, and that will continue in terms of the leaders' summit. Obviously, that depends on the availability of leaders, but we look forward to that. And in the meantime, as I said, three Foreign Ministers' Quad meetings in a very short space of time demonstrates the commitment of all countries to it.
Journalist: You mentioned about the uncertain times. What was the tangible discussion on the Strait of Hormuz? Any specific measures were discussed, like are we going to escalate the diplomatic efforts, India or Quad overall together or bilaterally?
Foreign Minster: Yes, the first point is that Secretary Rubio did update us on the negotiations and the progress of those negotiations with Iran, and as you know, Australia and others have been saying for some time, we need to see a diplomatic resolution, we need to see the Strait open, we need to see supply flow, and I think that's a consistent position of Quad members, so we were updated on that. In terms of some of the consequences of the conflict and the closure of the Strait, you would see that there's a discussion about energy security, and the energy security initiative is one of the outcomes of our meeting.
Journalist: Minister, I'm Som from ABC Australia. Can you provide any information on Australian linked with ISIS, who is subject to a TEO, and stayed behind in Syria?
Foreign Minster: No, I would leave that for Minister Burke. I understand he has made some announcements. Obviously, Temporary Exclusion Orders are the narrow circumstances in which we are able to prevent an Australian citizen temporarily from returning to Australia. Minister Burke has made some comments about that, but I'll leave that for him.
Journalist: I’ll just pick up on some of those points. Are you confident that there will be a leaders’ summit this year? And what's, what's the stumbling block do you think preventing that from happening?
Foreign Minster: Well, I think there's quite a lot happening in the world, and obviously President Trump is very deeply engaged at the moment on these issues in the Middle East. I think you can see the commitment to the Quad by the commitment of the foreign ministers. This is the first time – I've been in this job for a period of time – this is the most Quad meetings at foreign minister level that I've had in any period, and that I think demonstrates the importance of that.
Journalist: China's Foreign Ministry has released a statement today to coincide with the Quad, saying it does not support the formation of exclusive cliques or bloc confrontation. China clearly sees itself as a target of Quad cooperation. How do you respond to those comments?
Foreign Minster: So I want to talk about what we are for. We are for peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific, and that's what we're acting to deliver.
Journalist: Reza from the Hindustan Times, thank you for doing this. You know, both you and Foreign Minister Motegi spoke about the ability to give countries in this region choices. Obviously, the thing on ports and energy security dovetails into that. What more can you do to give them choices? And number two, you also spoke about expanding the maritime surveillance into the Indian Ocean. This, I believe, is an extension of the earlier maritime domain awareness initiative, you also spoke about real-time maritime surveillance. How are you going to go about that?
Foreign Minster: First, your question about choices, and it's a good question, and what it reflects, I hope, is the point I was making to your colleague. If we are for, as we are, a peaceful, stable, prosperous Indo-Pacific, a free and open Indo-Pacific, what does that actually mean? That means a country should be able to make sovereign choices about who they are and what they want, and so if the Quad can deliver those choices or those options, then we should do so, and you've seen the practical work that we are doing to enable that. What was your second question?
Journalist: Maritime domain.
Foreign Minster: Sorry yes, there are two aspects – the maritime domain announcements, the IPMSC, which is the maritime surveillance corporation, which you referenced. My recollection is, in fact, that is, we are already doing that with the US and Japan, and so what this initiative is is an extension to involve India more, particularly in the Indian Ocean. The awareness, the maritime domain awareness work, we have expanded that. Secretary Rubio made a very important comment, I think, which was maritime domain awareness is a precondition for freedom of navigation, and it's a precondition for sovereignty, and it is a way of ensuring we know who is in our domain, maritime domain, and what we need to do about it, and so we are very, we have leant into this in other parts of the Pacific, and we are keen to keep working with India, in particular, to lean into it, and the US and Japan into the Indian Ocean region.
Journalist: Madam Minister, Shubhajit Roy from Indian Express. Two questions: one is about the bilateral meeting that we're going to have, as we understand Prime Minister Modi would like, would like to travel there to Australia later this year. What are the bilateral outcomes that we are looking at formed up in this meeting today evening? Number one, number two, Fiji port infrastructure development that you talked about, I understand Australia laid, took the initiative to kind of to make it happen in Fiji. Why Fiji?
Foreign Minster: A couple of points, the first of the bilateral outcomes, obviously I'm not going to announce ahead of the leaders' visit what bilateral outcomes, but you are right in inferring that part of my visit here is to ensure there is proper preparation for the Leaders' Meeting, and we very much look forward to Prime Minister Modi coming to Australia as a friend of our Prime Minister, as an important Comprehensive Strategic Partner, but also because the Indian diaspora is such a valued part of our Australian community and our Australian society. It is a diaspora who makes an enormous contribution to Australia, and they're enormously proud of their heritage. And you’ll see that when Prime Minister Modi visits. In terms of Fiji port, why Fiji? We work very closely with Fiji. It is one of the countries where we have worked with India for obvious reasons. The port option, the development of the port in Fiji has been a priority for that government, a priority for Prime Minister Rabuka and his cabinet, and as I said earlier to your colleague, the Quad is focusing on responding to the priorities of countries of the region and delivering, and the Fiji port is an example of that.
Journalist: Minister Wong, sorry for being impatient, I thought I lost my time. I'm Suhasini Haidar, I'm from The Hindu newspaper. You know, you spoke about the maritime security agreement signed today. You spoke about the need for this free, open Indo-Pacific stability in the region, yet it seems there is a member of the Quad that was responsible for destabilising the Indo-Pacific region. The US' attacks on Iran earlier this year that set off this conflict, as well as the US’ bombing, the torpedoing of the Iris Dena, the Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean. My question is twofold: one, does the maritime security agreement that the Quad countries have signed indicate that the other Quad partners of the United States approve of what the US has done just in the past few months, and back that? And the second is a follow-up on the, on the, you know, on the second, sorry, the second part of that is, did you raise what happened in the last few months with Mr Rubio, and the second part of the question is a follow-up on that –
Foreign Minster: It’s the third part actually.
Journalist: First part, is the US is the summit that is expected later this year, is that going to happen, or do you foresee the Quad, the Quad Summit actually being set aside for Australia to hold the summit, and therefore a downgradation of the Quad?
Foreign Minster: Well, I take a somewhat offence to suggesting that anything held in Australia is a downgrade, so I would hope that's not what is being suggested by you, madam. So that's the first point.
Journalist: No, as in to the foreign ministers.
Foreign Minster: My answer on the summit is obviously, is as I've answered earlier in this press conference, which is that it's ultimately a matter for leaders, but I think you should take from the foreign ministers’ commitment to this forum an indication the importance all of our countries place on this construct in order to contribute to stability and peace. In relation to the first part of your question, no, the maritime domain discussion is not about Iran, it's about the Indo-Pacific, and it is about the work that we need to do in this vast region to ensure that countries of the region have the capacity to know who is in, what illegal fishing is occurring, what is occurring in their maritime zones, and supporting their capacity to respond. Finally, I’ll just make this point, the Quad matters for the region in which we live, and yes, we did have a conversation in which Secretary Rubio briefed us about, updated the Quad on the negotiations between the US and Iran, and I think all the countries around the table are hoping that there is an outcome which returns stability, which returns peace and which enables freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and supply to flow. We all know the impact on our people of this conflict, but ultimately the focus of the Quad is the region, Indo-Pacific region, in which we live. Thank you very much.