Opening remarks – Bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
RISHI SUNAK, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: Good morning, everyone. It’s great to welcome Anthony back to the UK, but especially to Downing Street. I think we had a fantastic meeting when we last saw each other in San Diego. And it just shows the strength of the partnership and the friendship between our two countries. We’ve got great news, because our Free Trade Agreement we’re announcing is coming into force imminently, which is going to be an enormous opportunity for our citizens and our businesses. But also, when we were in San Diego, we announced an unprecedented multilateral defence partnership in AUKUS, which demonstrates the respect and trust between I think our two countries very well. And we will continue to build on that. I know you visited the training here of Ukrainian troops that you’re participating in, and I know the Ukrainians are very grateful for it, and we’re very grateful to you for participating in that program. But also, I know we’ll be having a chat about some sporting stuff later on, with the Women’s World Cup in your part of the world this summer. And we’re obviously going to be reclaiming the Ashes this summer over here. But Anthony, over to you, welcome.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well we’ll agree on most things, but on sport perhaps, the rivalry will continue. But thank you so much, Prime Minister, for the welcome. I think our relationship goes from strength to strength, and with AUKUS, with the trade deal, with our common action on climate change and seeking those economic opportunities that will come from it, I see a theme – jobs. Jobs created here in the UK, jobs created in Australia, and I just think our relationship goes from strength to strength. And of course, we do have that rivalry, with the Ashes this year being held here, your team’s been doing really well, playing a very positive brand of cricket. But the World Cup, of course, we will have, I must inform you, Prime Minister, that we will have Sam Kerr as our flagbearer tomorrow at the Coronation. And Sam Kerr will invariably be winning and being the key goalscorer at the World Cup, being at home on our home soil.
PRIME MINISTER SUNAK: We’ll see, I’m sure the Lionesses will have something to say about that. But we look forward to it anyway. Thank you very much.