Doorstop interview – Wewak, Papua New Guinea
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thank you for welcoming us here. And to the men and women of the Second Royal Pacific Island Regiment, I want to say thank you for welcoming us here, myself as the Australian Prime Minister and my delegation, the Minister Pat Conroy and Senator Nita Green who travelled with me on this occasion along with our High Commissioner and other Australian representatives. We have earlier this morning travelled from Port Moresby to Wewak in order, firstly, to pay our respects and to pay our tribute to Michael Somare through his family here in Wewak. That was important because of the historic role that we will commemorate in just a couple of years’ time now, the 50th anniversary of the independence of Papua New Guinea. The discussions that we had yesterday, the great honour I had of addressing your Parliament and of also meeting with the fourth Australian-PNG ministerial meeting that we have had. It is an important one in reinforcing the fact that there is no more important relationship that we have with each other than the Australia-PNG relationship. We are not just neighbours, we are family. And here at this barracks this is further evidence of just how close those ties are. The fact that you had a peaceful and positive transition to independence is a great credit to the people of Papua New Guinea and to the leadership of Sir Michael all those years ago. Since then, we have seen Papua New Guinea continue to grow and thrive and I’m very positive that there is a great future here in PNG. But I’m positive and optimistic with a reason because I’ve been here and I know the opportunity that there is here in PNG. But I’m also optimistic because I understand that the future of our two nations is so linked that success for Papua New Guinea is success for Australia and vice versa. That is one of the reasons why we are talking about increased economic cooperation, increased educational and training opportunities for people from Papua New Guinea. We’re talking as well about having a stronger security relationship into the future and concluding our security treaty upgrades by the end of April and then myself and Prime Minister Marape being in a position to sign up by June. I know that one of the things that will do is increase the interoperability between our two defence forces. It will be about including greater exchanges as well, and helping each other, and learning from each other. This facility here is a magnificent one that serves your nation so well. So I pay tribute to all of you who have made that decision to wear your country’s uniform, your proud and sovereign country. In doing so, you make a decision to help the fellow residents of Papua New Guinea. And I know that your Prime Minister and your Governor is proud of each and every one of you for the decision that you have made. So, I thank you for what you do. I look forward to a further strengthening of the relationship between our two countries in the future. And I thank you for giving me the honour of having me here with you today.