Doorstop – Bangkok, Thailand | Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I’ll be brief, but I think this is important. The Vice-President of the United States just convened a meeting that was attended by myself as the Prime Minister of Australia, the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand. We met due to the actions of North Korea that have occurred over the last 24 hours. North Korea has launched an unprecedented launch of multiple ballistic missiles. This is recklessly threatening our security, it’s destabilising our region, and in particular, it’s causing trauma for the people of Japan, and the people of the Republic of Korea. This provocation violates multiple UN resolutions, and must stop. Australia supports the convening of an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to deal with this issue. We clearly condemn this action, and we’ll consider what further action is required. To be clear, one of the things that we talked about in the meeting was the nature of these missiles is that they are long-range, intercontinental ballistic missiles, that threaten the security of the entire region. And that’s why it needs to be condemned by the global community. The idea of a convening of an emergency session of the UN Security Council is an appropriate response. And it’s important that the Security Council condemn this action, and then consider what further action should be required. Happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if the Security Council meets, I mean given this is already a clear violation of (inaudible), what more can they do (inaudible)?
PRIME MINISTER: This is about the globe coming together to condemn the actions of North Korea, to stand up for peace and security in our region and around the world. This action does threaten our security. It does destabilise the region, and that’s why it needs to be condemned. This is precisely the reason why the UN Security Council was established so that they could act on very short notice on matters like this.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you mentioned that one of the concerns here is that it’s an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears to have been tested. That has happened before, is there something about this test which has particularly prompted concerns from yourself and from your allies?
PRIME MINISTER: Well this test it would appear has landed in Japan’s EEZ. It is one of multiple launches, it wasn’t just one missile this morning. And there has been increasingly an escalation of North Korea’s activity, and it needs to be called out. It needs to be condemned, and the globe needs to act on this.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, was there any discussion of the response from the group that were there today and what would you like to see happen?
PRIME MINISTER: We agreed to all take actions like what I’m doing now, to publicly call for the UN Security Council to meet in emergency sessions. The United States has taken the lead on that with the strong support of the Republic of Korea and Japan, but also those countries that feel strongly about this in the region. It is appropriate given the APEC is meeting that we have met as we did and that we express this strong view.