US ECONOMICS

AUSTRALIA

U.S. Department of State. 08/03/2019. Secretary Pompeo Travels to Australia To Deepen Our Historic Alliance

“Our Alliance is iron-clad.  The United States and Australia both know that we can rely on each other.” 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, July 24, 2018

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Sydney, Australia, August 3-5, where he will meet with Prime Minister Morrison; participate alongside Secretary of Defense Esper in AUSMIN 2019, hosted by Foreign Minister Payne and Minister for Defense Reynolds; and meet with political leaders.  Already the closest of friends and allies, the United States and Australia proudly share more than a century of “mateship,” striving together on the battle fields; in research and scientific exploration; and in business, culture, and the arts.  While in Australia, the Secretary will deliver a speech on the enduring relationship between our peoples.

THE U.S.-AUSTRALIA STRATEGIC ALLIANCE IS REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

• For more than 100 years, the United States and Australia have relied on each other, fighting along one another in every conflict since World War I. Our historic security alliance is nearing its seventh decade. Australia is a vital Five Eyes intelligence partner.
• Our collaboration in innovation is no less remarkable. This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of mankind walking on the moon. Our coordination with Australia ensured the world was able to witness this iconic moment, and our scientific cooperation endures.
• President Trump congratulated Prime Minister Scott Morrison on his election victory in May, and has invited him for an official visit and state dinner on September 20. We are firmly committed to working with all governments of Australia to broaden and deepen our relationship, and achieve our shared strategic priorities around the globe.
• Our shared priorities include the denuclearization of North Korea; freedom of navigation in global shipping and air lanes; the eradication of ISIS and other terrorist groups; the campaign to counter foreign interference in our elections; and our work to achieve our shared vision for a free, open, and rules-based Indo-Pacific.
• We are working together in the Indo-Pacific to expand regional cooperation in energy, civil space, and core infrastructure development. Together the United States and Australia are investing in the future of the Indo-Pacific.

OUR BILATERAL ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP CONTINUES TO FLOURISH

• The United States and Australia enjoy a robust bilateral economic relationship. Thanks in large part to the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement signed in 2005, the value of two-way trade and services has more than doubled. In 2018 alone, S. goods and services trade with Australia totaled an estimated $65.5 billion, with a surplus of $29.1 billion.
• The United States is Australia’s number one foreign direct investor by a large margin. Our FDI supports approximately 400,000 jobs in Australia, at high wages.  The United States is Australia’s number one outbound destination for its foreign direct investment, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs at similarly high wages.
• Our two-way economic relationship is still expanding. With our combined focus on high-tech, space, medical research, and biotech, these numbers and the quality of our citizens’ lives will continue to grow.
• Together in the Indo-Pacific we are champions of transparency, good governance, and complementary financing of investment in infrastructure projects, such as the Papua New Guinea Electrification Partnership.
• As part of our ongoing commitment to the Pacific Islands, the United States will host a bilateral Development Dialogue with Australia later this year.

THE BOND BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND AUSTRALIA IS UNBREAKABLE

• As two of the world’s oldest democracies, the United States and Australia share deep respect for one another’s democratic values, standards, and traditions. Support for U.S.-Australia ties transcends political parties, in both countries.
• But it is our people that make this relationship special: In 2017, more than 750,000 Americans visited Australia, spending nearly $4 billion. In recent years, more than a million Australians, on average, visited the United States annually.
• Australian students enrich our university campuses, contribute to advances in groundbreaking research and development, and contribute significantly to innovation and entrepreneurship in America.
• Our cultural collaboration extends to the entertainment industry, where Americans and Australians produce blockbuster movies that are renowned around the world.

U.S. Department of State. 08/04/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo And Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, and Australian Minister of Defense Linda Reynolds At a Press Availability

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thank you very much, David, and good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.  In this oldest of parliaments in Australia, let me begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging.

Let me also welcome our good friends and colleagues, Secretary Pompeo and Secretary Esper, to Australia for this AUSMIN.  Let me congratulate Secretary Esper on his appointment and say I know from experience there’s nothing like a good AUSMIN mere days after an appointment to really focus yourself on the alliance, an experience I enjoyed in 2015.

Colleagues, let me also express Australia’s most sincere condolences at the tragedy that has unfolded in El Paso today and convey our sympathies to those who have been lost and their families, and our very best thoughts and prayers to those who are dealing with their injuries.

I also want to acknowledge our senior officials who are with us today: my very good friend Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador to Washington, and his team; Ambassador A.B. Culvahouse, every moment of your four months here has been a joy, and we hope that that continues – #nopressure.  (Laughter.)

To our defense leaders and our departmental officials, thank you for the support that you have given us to bring today together.  It’s a lovely winter’s afternoon here in Sydney.  This is winter in Sydney, colleagues. It’s not too shabby, as we would say.  Secretary Pompeo and I have just come from Bangkok, where we joined ASEAN foreign ministers there – again in a slightly different climate – to discuss the strategic issues that face our region and our nations.  Our ability to engage in those critical fora outlines – underlines the shared vision that we have, both there, spending that crucial time with our counterparts from our region, from the Indo-Pacific.

It is important to reinforce that without strong U.S. engagement, the region that we all want, the region that we indeed need, can’t be achieved.  That’s a region in which all states are respected regardless of size and power.  It’s a region that continues to enjoy peace, security, and prosperity underpinned by the international rules that have kept us safe for decades.  And our alliance is now strongly orientated towards ensuring that shared vision for the Indo-Pacific.

We’ve talked today about our work together in coordination, in collaboration, to contribute, for example, to sustainable, resilient infrastructure; to promote adherence to international law; to further cooperation with key partners around the region, and there are many, but for example India and Japan and Indonesia.  The strong Australia-U.S. alliance can be the basis for deepening our friendships elsewhere, and the tapestry of relationships that we have across the Indo-Pacific and we continue to build is a foundation for openness and prosperity.  We see that practically in the trilateral infrastructure partnership between our two countries and Japan, for example.  Australia continues our Pacific step-up, and increasingly you’ll see our commitment to infrastructure also in ASEAN countries, including the vulnerable Mekong region.

The mateship between Australia and the United States has lasted more than a hundred years and, thanks to the initiative and the drive of Ambassador Hockey and his team and many Australians and many Americans, it’s now part of our language.  And what’s more, we’re in our second century.  In cricketing terms, that would be a very good thing if we could achieve that just at the minute.

But as technology transforms our economies and our lives, the values on which it’s based – values such as individual freedoms, human rights, and sovereignty free from coercion – will continue to shape the world for the better in new frontiers such as space and cyberspace.  The values that underpin this alliance, this relationship between our two countries, are indispensable to stability, to prosperity, and to the security of our region.

So thank you, Mike and Mark.  Thank you so much for the productive discussions we’ve had today that reiterate all of our shared commitment to those values, and I will ask Mike now to make some opening remarks.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Right, thank you.  Thank you, Foreign Minister Payne, and thank you, Minister Reynolds.  I’m honored to pay my first visit here as Secretary of State to Australia, and I’m touched by the warm welcome.  Thank you, too, for your expression of sympathy for those who were killed in El Paso, Texas.

It’s only fitting that we just held our annual 2+2 meeting at the New South Wales Parliament House, your very first parliament building here.  Thanks for the tour.  It was great to see another place.  Having served in Congress, to watch how you do combat politically was quite something.  It was a beautiful piece of architecture; it’s a landmark to democracy and to constitutional government.

Prime Minister Morrison and President Trump had a great meeting last month in Osaka, and we four have now had great conversations this morning as well.  As we discussed today and as I’ll talk about later this afternoon in my remarks, the time is right for the United States and Australia to do much more together in the region and beyond.

Let me be clear:  The United States is a Pacific nation.  We care deeply about what happens here and we’re here to stay.  And I want all Australians to know they can always rely on the United States of America.  And just as we talk about Britain as a special relationship, we think of this as an unbreakable relationship.  It’s grounded in our shared values of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.

I – as Foreign Minister Payne said, I just wrapped up a series of regional meetings in Bangkok, where ASEAN partners reaffirmed our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.  We’re thrilled to have Australia as a close partner in this effort.  In particular, we’re working closely to increase our engagement with partners throughout Southeast Asia.  The United States and Australia want our friends to achieve prosperity through trade and investment, and we’re committed to creating the conditions for that to happen responsibly.  Talking about basic things, about respect for national sovereignty, openness, transparency, property rights, the rule of law, and a healthy respect for human rights.  Australia’s $2 billion infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific is a great step forward.

We’re not asking nations to choose between the United States and China, because that’s not how we operate. Cooperation with the U.S. and our Australian friends brings mutual benefits, not zero-sum deals where one side wins and the other risks losing.  We have a proven formula for prosperity which includes property rights and the rule of law and competition.  These qualities are on display in our bilateral relationship and our economic ties, the extent of which is often underestimated.  The United States invests nearly $170 billion in Australia each and every year.  The United States is by far the largest investor here in Australia, accounting for more than 25 percent of all foreign direct investment.

It’s easy sometimes to forget that the amount of private investment in the Indo-Pacific far surpasses the amount of government investment here.  Judging how private enterprise has been the engine for driving the astounding prosperity in this region over several decades, we hope all countries will welcome more of it.

Moving beyond economics, we Pacific powers agree it’s important to shine sunlight on bad behavior, however and whenever it occurs.  Australia courageously and independently raised the alarm about the risk of China’s 5G ambitions even before we caught on.  We’re both concerned about China’s militarization of their man-made islands in the South China Sea, and we’re both keeping an eye on investment that mires our friends in debt and corruption.

Our multilateral work together matters too.  Today we discussed greater cooperation with partners like Japan to help us build a network of alliance and partners all across the region.  The United States welcomes Australia’s increased engagement with India, another democracy, including through the Quad format, and we’ll actively explore ways our four countries can increase cooperation.

Finally, our global cooperation has massive potential.  We hope Australia will partner with us in some of the pressing foreign policy challenges of our time, like efforts to stabilize Syria, keep Afghanistan free of terror, and confront the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unprovoked attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is all very possible.  Our equal partnership has blessed the world for more than a century.  I’m confident it will continue to do so for a long time to come.  Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thanks very much, Mike.  Linda.

DEFENSE MINISTER REYNOLDS:  Thanks very much, Marise, and let me join you in welcoming our two very special and most welcome visitors, Secretary Pompeo and also Mark Esper.

The Australia-U.S. alliance is and continues to be our most important defense relationship, and it’s – also remains the cornerstone of our defense and our security policies.  As we enter our much-discussed second century of mateship, or friendship, and also close defense cooperation, the alliance is in excellent shape. And as Secretary Pompeo has just said, it is unbreakable, but we must never, ever take it for granted.  It is an alliance based on mutual values of trust and deep, deep friendship.  Our defense cooperation in particular – in operations, in intelligence capability and defense science and technology – is simply unparalleled, and it delivers great benefits to both sides.

But as strong as our relationship is, however, we have a compelling reason now to strengthen it further.  Our region is becoming more prosperous, but it is getting more nervous.  Australia is a three-ocean nation.  All are becoming increasingly contested, and our discussions today touched on all three.

In the Indo-Pacific, we are stepping up our defense cooperation, and today we agreed to continue working together through enhanced defense engagement and capacity building with key partners in the Pacific region.  And in the Pacific, we reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen cooperation with Pacific Island partners to realize their own vision for a prosperous and secure region.

Further afield, today we also recognized the contributions that our servicemen and women make standing side by side in many operations and in many parts of the world.  And they continue to make an enormous difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and right across the Middle East.

But today we also noted our shared concerns regarding the threat to freedom of navigation and also the uninterrupted passage of maritime trade in the strategic sea lanes of the Middle East and also in our own region, including in the South China Sea.  We also reaffirmed our collective desire for the verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea, and also our support – our ongoing support – for the international community’s sanction efforts.

But it’s not just what we do together abroad and have for a hundred years, but also today what we do together across Australia.  Today we focused on leveraging the United States force posture initiatives to build on capacities and also to strengthen our interoperability.  We noted the enormous success of our largest combined biennial exercise, Talisman Saber.  We also discussed how joint facilities such as Pine Gap play a critical role in safeguarding our nation’s security and also in maintaining global peace.

Finally, today we reaffirmed our commitment to strengthen capability, science and technology, and also our defense industry cooperation, particularly our cooperation with the United States on emerging and leading technologies, including hypersonics, space, cyber, and now in critical minerals.  And we also highlighted programs we are partnering on already with research and development for new capabilities, including the P-8, the Triton, and the Joint Strike Fighter.

So, in conclusion, my summary of today is this: that the Australia-United States alliance is stronger than ever, and it is evolving to meet the strategic challenges that confront us today.  I very much look forward to meeting again with Secretary Esper very shortly to continue these discussions on defense cooperation at our next bilateral meeting.  This afternoon these discussions will continue to deepen the cooperation that underpins our great alliance, and welcome and thank you both for being here today and engaging in such rich and diverse conversations, and occasionally even a little humorous conversation, so thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thank you very much, Linda.  Secretary Esper.  Mark.

SECRETARY ESPER:  Thank you.  Good afternoon, everyone.  Minister Payne, Secretary Pompeo, Minister Reynolds, thank you for today’s insightful discussions.  I am proud to visit Australia on my first visit as the United States Secretary of Defense, particularly as we start our second century of mateship.  Our military bond began with the diggers and the doughboys in the trenches of World War I, and it continues to this day.  The shared courage and commitment of our alliance has sustained our security in every major conflict for the last century, and we continue to draw upon our close relationship in today’s complex international security environment.

In fact, we just completed our annual Talisman Saber exercise here in Australia, as was mentioned.  It went exceedingly well, demonstrating the relationship between our militaries remains strong and our capabilities are robust.  I want to thank Australia for its strong partnership and its numerous commitments to security throughout the world, to include contributions to the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, continued support to the missions in Iraq and Syria, maritime enforcement of UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea, and their work to expand security cooperation throughout the region.  The U.S. Department of Defense is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with Australia’s armed forces in support of a safe, prosperous, free, and open Indo-Pacific region.

I am very encouraged by our conversations today.  We discussed a wide range of issues regarding our cooperative efforts to advance our shared security interests across the region.  I’m pleased to note we’ve recently reached our milestone of 2,500 United States Marines at the rotational force in Darwin.  Our partnership there enables great combined training between U.S. and Australian troops and marks a significant step forward for both countries.

We are continuing to expand our partnership with other Pacific Island countries through our security cooperation in places like Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Palau.  We commend Australia’s Pacific step-up, which mirrors our own increased engagement in the region, and together we remain committed to maintaining the openness of the global commons.  The United States will continue to fly, to sail, and operate wherever international law allows.

The United States is a Pacific nation, and our national defense strategy makes clear this is our priority theater.  We are here to stay and we are here to strengthen our security networks to uphold shared values such as respect for sovereignty for countries large and small, peaceful resolution of disputes, free and fair trade, and adherence to international rules and norms.  These are not just American principles and they aren’t just Australian principles; they are Indo-Pacific principles.  We firmly believe no one nation can or should dominate the Indo-Pacific, and we are working alongside our allies and partners to address the region’s pressing security needs.

We also stand firmly against a disturbing pattern of aggressive behavior, destabilizing behavior from China. This includes weaponizing the global commons, using predatory economics and debt for sovereignty deals, and promoting state-sponsored theft of other nations’ intellectual property.  In the Indo-Pacific, power should not determine position and debt should not determine destiny.  The United States will not stand by idly while any one nation attempts to reshape the region to its favor at the expense of others, and we know our allies and partners will not either.

In closing, I want to thank our Australian counterparts once again for a great day full of productive discussions.  This was an excellent first stop on my trip through the region, and I’m looking forward to the next few days as I visit a number of other allies and partners.  The Indo-Pacific is home to a strong network of like-minded nations who are willing to stand up to protect the rules-based order that has preserved the peace and enabled prosperity for the past 70 years.  The United States is one such nation, and we remain committed to the region’s future.  In partnership with our mates here in Australia and alongside our friends throughout the Indo-Pacific, we will continue to build a security environment that will ensure peace and stability for generations to come.  Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thanks very much, Mark.

MODERATOR:  All right, thank you all.  We’ll now move to Q&A.  We’ll alternate between the Australian and American journalists.  I’ll introduce the Australians and Morgan Ortagus, who’s the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, will introduce the Americans.  First up we have Greg Jennett from the ABC.

QUESTION:  David, thank you.  My question is directed in the first instance to the visiting secretaries, and it draws on Secretary Esper’s thoughts about intermediate missiles expressed on your way here to Sydney. Assuming you would need the support in the Asian region of allies to expand such a network, and as range improves, can you rule out locating any of these missiles in your ever-expanding establishments in Australia’s north?

And to our own ministers, do you see any risks associated with the inevitable perception that this may be a hostile course of action – provocative, even – directed towards China?  Do you see risks of destabilization and instability in the region because of it?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Let me start, then Mark, I’ll turn it over to you.  So our decision of this past week was one that evidences our mission set.  We had entered into a treaty with the Russians, they proceeded to violate it, and we spent years working to convince them to return to the treaty – to treaty compliance.  You had a treaty with exactly two signatories, exactly one of whom was complying.  It no longer made any sense.

Remember why it was created.  It was created with a vision of deterrence.  That’s always been our mission set and it will continue to be so.  To your point about how we will proceed with respect to this class of weapon systems in all, it is of course the case that when we employ these systems around the world with our friends and allies, we do so with their consent, we do so with respect to their sovereignty.  We make decisions based on good decisions, mutual benefit to each of the countries that work on those particular sets of systems, much in the same way we work alongside with our great partners across multiple pieces of our collective security efforts.

Mark, do you want to add —

SECRETARY ESPER:  And what I would add is this:  As Secretary Pompeo just highlighted, the – our exit from the treaty on August 2nd was a result of Russian noncompliance over many, many years, and what that did in the meantime – we complied with that treaty up until its last day, which was August 2nd.  We now are free, if you will, to develop that range of weapons – 500 kilometers to 5,500 kilometers – that have not been available to us from a ground-based deterrent posture.  And again, we’re talking about conventional weapons now, not nuclear.

So I think to the degree that allowing us to design and develop, test, and eventually deploy systems, whether it’s in Europe, whether it’s in the Asia Pacific or elsewhere, gives us and continues that deterrent posture we want to deter conflict in any region in which we deploy them in consultation with our allies and partners.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thanks very much.  Let me say, and in doing so remind us all, that the presence of the United States and its military forces in this region has been a force for stability for decades, and that Australia has consistently welcomed that force and that presence.

Now, having been in Mark’s shoes and where Linda is now, I would always expect a secretary of defense to be considering the posture of U.S. forces.  That is of course the job of that particular role, but with regards to our regional engagement, let me also assure and remind that for China and for Australia, we see China as a vitally important partner for Australia.  We are strongly committed to our comprehensive strategic partnership, which continues to grow, and in these meetings today we’ve of course discussed our respective engagement with China, and self-evidently we each have areas of difference with China.

As I mentioned and have mentioned in the past to counterparts, I can’t think of a single bilateral relationship in the world that is perfect, in which there is no point of difference on which countries might engage.  It’s how you deal with the differences that of course is very important.  We both want productive relationships. It’s in no one’s interests for the Indo-Pacific to become more competitive or to become adversarial in character.  So we work closely with our key partners – with our strongest alliance partner, the United States, and our key partner, China – to pursue those issues of stability and security and prosperity that I think in one way or another we all spoke about in our opening remarks.

MS ORTAGUS:  Okay, from the American side, we’re going to have Francesco Fontemaggi from AFP.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  I would ask a question on Afghanistan to Secretaries Pompeo and Esper.  Do you think, or at least do you hope, that a deal with the Taliban can be reached during the current round of talks in Doha that started yesterday?  And is Ambassador Khalilzad ready to meet with the political ship of the Taliban to finalize such a deal?  And if there is a deal, does the withdrawal of five to six thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan sound like a realistic option to you?

And to Minister Payne and Reynolds, do you think the conditions are there for the U.S. withdrawal and – or do you think this is premature?  Thank you.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So let me talk about our work to create a reduction in violence and peace in Afghanistan.  Ambassador Khalilzad, at my direction and at the President’s direction, has been engaged in this for a long time now.  You talk about conversations with the Taliban; Ambassador Khalilzad has talked with all of the elements of Afghan authority.  He’s talked with civil society groups, he’s spoken with women’s groups, he’s spoken with President Ghani and CEO Abdullah.  He’s spoken with other Afghan institutional leaders, all of which are aimed at the singular purpose of creating an environment where U.S. resources and, frankly, Australian resources and all those participants in Resolute Support can expend fewer resources both in terms of treasure, in terms of life and blood in Afghanistan.

After 19 years, President Trump has made very clear that his desire is that we develop a diplomatic resolution that permits us to reduce the resources that are located there in country while simultaneously ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a platform where terror can strike the United States of America.  That’s Ambassador Khalilzad’s mission set, and we are closely synced up with the Department of Defense to see if we get the right political resolution, we can get the right force structure in the region as well.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Senator Reynolds has recently visited Afghanistan; I think she’s well placed to respond to your question.

DEFENSE MINISTER REYNOLDS:  Well, thank you very much.  As Marise has said, I recently had the great privilege of visiting our men and women in Kabul and seeing firsthand the enormous difference that they are doing in Operation Resolute and some other activities they’re doing, hand in hand with our American servicemen and women.  And it was very clear to me there that a negotiated settlement is the only way forward for peace in Afghanistan.

Our position is under constant review, as you would expect, and we are now waiting to see what happens with the 28 September election and also with the next round of peace talks.  We are of course looking forward, but we have yet – not yet made any decisions, and we will of course take any future considerations in Afghanistan in terms of our other regional priorities and issues.  But again, whatever we do there, it’s got to be at the behest of the Afghan Government.

MODERATOR:  All right.  The next question from the Australian side is Brad Norington of The Australian.

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Brad Norington from The Australian newspaper.  To Secretaries Pompeo and Esper, have you had an affirmative answer to your request for Australian assistance in the safe escort of shipping in the Persian Gulf?  Why is it considered necessary, given that Europe may mount its own operations?  And would Australian naval and/or air forces come under U.S. command if such an operation proceeded, and when could we expect commencement?

To Ministers Payne and Reynolds, have you agreed to a request on Gulf escorts?  And if so, could you give an indication on timing and also the chain of command that could be expected?  And what resources might be committed to the Straits of Hormuz?

SECRETARY ESPER:  So I’ll take the first part, and I’ll actually let Minister Reynolds answer the first question.  Let me just say this:  From the get-go, the United States has been very clear that the purpose of our proposed operations in the Strait of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman has been twofold – first of all, to promote the principle of freedom of navigation and freedom of commerce through all waterways, particularly that one, number one.  Number two is to prevent any provocative actions by Iran that might lead to some misunderstanding or miscalculation that could lead to a conflict.

And so when we first advanced this idea several weeks ago, we had a good response from some of our allies and partners.  We continue to develop that idea.  Just last week I was in Central Command in Tampa, Florida, where we had a resourcing conference.  Over 30 countries attended that.  We got various degrees of response.  I think there’ll be some announcements coming out in the coming days, but needless to say, I think the purpose remains the same whether it’s an operation conducted under United States command and control or conducted by somebody else – a European partnership.  I think both fulfill the same purpose: a unity of effort with regard to ensuring freedom of navigation, freedom of the seas, and also deterring provocative behavior so that we get any type of discourse between the international community and Iran back on the diplomatic path, back on that track, and not on one headed toward conflict.

DEFENSE MINISTER REYNOLDS:  Thank you.  What I’d say up front is, to make the Australian Government’s position on this very, very clear, we are deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region and we strongly condemn the attacks on shipping in the Gulf of Oman.  The request that the United States has made is a very serious one and it is a complex one.  That’s why we are currently giving this request very serious consideration.  We will ultimately, as we always do, decide what is in our own sovereign interests, and we certainly discussed this issue during our ministerial consultations.  But again, no decision has yet been made.

MS ORTAGUS:  Okay, we’re going to have Idrees Ali from Reuters.

QUESTION:  Pompeo and Esper, you both have been talking with your allies around Asia and Europe about the maritime initiative that was just mentioned, but their response, at least publicly, has been lukewarm at best.  Germany and Japan have both said that they’re not going to send warships for this initiative.  So what makes you confident that you’re actually going to be able to fill out the request that you’ve made, and is there a specific deadline by which you want to fill that request out, given the imminent nature of some of the threats that you’ve talked about in the past?

And for the Australian ministers, there’s been talk about increase in U.S. military infrastructure in Australia. Are you considering deeper military engagement or more military engagement with the United States?  Will that be more troops, military exercises or infrastructure?  And will that be based out of Darwin or will that be somewhere other than that?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Let me take the first part of your question.  So you made an assertion about certain countries that have made decisions.  You shouldn’t believe everything that’s reported in the press. You – you simply shouldn’t believe everything that’s reported in the press.  There’s lots of conversations taking place amongst all of the countries.  As with Australia, they are all taking this request seriously.  They understand that they have goods that flow through this region that are important to their own economies, and so deterrence in the strait is incredibly important to their citizens and to their countries.

And so I am confident that when we begin to build out this process and begin to develop the operational concept, which will be run by Secretary of Defense and his team, I am very confident that we will have a global coalition that does what Secretary Esper spoke to, which reduces the risk of conflict in the region and enables the freedom of navigation.  Just as we spoke about the freedom of navigation in the straits in this region that the United States participates in, it’s very important that every country that has an interest in that region and has goods and services that flow, energy that flows into places like Japan and Korea, that they participate in a way that protects the interests of their own economies.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thank you for your question.  I’m going to invite Senator Reynolds to answer it in detail, but let me say, as someone who has an abiding interest in the Australia-U.S. relationship and its defense aspects, particularly over the last few years, if you contemplate the depth and breadth of the relationship as it stands, let alone in the context of your question, it is one of the most significant that Australia enjoys.  When I was first talking with Ambassador Hockey about our defense engagement in the U.S., doing the math, as the U.S. would say, required us to assess that over more than 30 states of the U.S., over 600 Australian defense representatives in various capacities are embedded, are engaged, are working together in the pursuit of the values that we both support and that we prosecute consistently around the world, and most particularly in this region.

And as Senator Reynolds observed, the achievement of the full rotation of the Marine force rotation in the north of Australia is testament to that.  But in your detailed question, I’ll ask – invite Senator Reynolds to say more.

DEFENSE MINISTER REYNOLDS:  Thanks very much, Marise.  I suspect you’re referring specifically to that Marine Rotational Force, and we’re getting to that or we now have got to the 2,500.  In relation to your question, are we looking at additional measures?  Not in terms of facilities new, but we have had recent media here in terms of the $2 billion the Australian and the United States governments have committed towards the force posture initiatives.  And so this money is actually going towards filling out our current arrangements, so both for the Marine Rotation Force Darwin and also our enhanced air cooperation.  So it includes things like enhancing airfield accommodation, training areas, and also ranges that we both use.

So I understand that the money is now going through Congress, and far be it from me to predict what the Congress will do, but we warmly welcome the progress of that funding through the Congress and look forward to investing that money in facilities that we both use in the north of Australia.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Thank you very much, everyone.

U.S. Department of State. 08/04/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo “The Unbreakable Alliance”

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Good afternoon, everyone.  It always concerns me, though, when you applaud before the speech.  (Laughter.)  So hang on, hear what I say, and see what you think.

I was reminded – I walked through a little bit earlier and I saw these card catalogs in the library – reminded me I’ve used those.  I see young people, you have no idea what’s in those drawers.  Reminds me how old I am.

It’s great to be with you all today.  Foreign Minister Payne, thank you for the very kind introduction.  We had a great meeting this afternoon alongside our counterpart Minister Reynolds and my new counterpart Mark Esper.  And we – you and I had just seen each other in Bangkok, so I’m sure she’s getting sick of me by now.

And I’d be remiss too if I didn’t extend my thanks to the people of Australia for such a warm welcome here for myself and Susan.  The same goes for those of you who are here today, the dignitaries, including Minister Turnbull; Penny Wong, the shadow minister of foreign affairs; Ambassador Hockey; our ambassador, A.B. Culvahouse; Jennifer Westacott, the chair of the business council; and Dr. John Vallance, the New South Wales librarian who’s responsible for this amazing place that we find ourselves today.

And of course, a special thank you to Tom Switzer and the Center for Independent Studies for hosting us here today.  I look forward to taking your questions.  We’ll see if you can stump me.  Entirely possible.

I also want to congratulate Prime Minister Morrison on his recent victory.  My wife Susan and I have been in campaigns before.  We know how raucous they are, and thank you for your willingness to serve.  I look forward to – we have a chance to see he and his wife tonight and we’re very much looking forward to that.

I know too that President Trump and the First Lady are looking forward to hosting them at the White House for a state dinner at the end of next month.

And I’d like to take some time today too to talk about things that matter, the reason that I came here.  That’s the relationship, the unbreakable alliance between our two countries, and how we on the American side see this developing.

I’ll keep my remarks short because I’m eager to get Tom up here and have a go, and we’ll take some questions.

I wanted to get here.  It was important for me to get down here.  American diplomacy depends on showing up, especially talk with your closest friends, not give lectures.  This is a new era.  America doesn’t do that. The Trump administration knows you’re a partner, we are not your professor.

I want to tell you about a story, about a man who epitomized what our friendship is all about here.  Your prime minister told it to President Trump last year, but it’s so good that I’m going to steal it.

His name was Leslie Allen, but everyone in his brigade called him Bull.  Bull was an Australian who carried a stretcher during World War II and won admiration for fearlessly rescuing comrades wounded in the – on the battlefield.

In 1943, American and Australian troops were fighting side by side in what was then the Territory of New Guinea, taking very heavy casualties.  That didn’t stop Bull – thus, I suspect, the nickname.  He relentlessly raced back into the fray over and over again.

When all was said and done, Bull had delivered 12 wounded Americans to safety, even carrying them on his back.  For his heroism, Bull received America’s Silver Star.

Now that’s what I call showing up for your friends.

This is a friendship – our friendship is one that was truly meant to be.  History reflects that.  We are continental democracies.  We are nations of strivers.

We’ve both been through national struggles for civil rights and emerged the other side far better for it.  We set an example for the world to follow each and every day.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  We’re not exactly the same – I had an earpiece in case I needed a translation today from your reporters – but when we – when it comes to the things that really matter, the things that we all value so much – democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights.

This is why we fought side by side in World War I and in World War II and in Korea and in Vietnam and in Iraq and in Afghanistan today and in Somalia, in our ongoing battle against ISIS.

And of course we share the ultimate bond: a commitment to come to one other’s aid and to act to meet threats against one another’s homelands, via the ANZUS Treaty.  Americans will never forget how we invoked it – how you invoked it after 9/11.  Treaties should mean something.  I know that the one between our nations does.

But remembering those old glories matters, and it’s wonderful, but it’s not enough.  It’s not to keep – enough to keep our people safe today, or our people prosperous, or our people free.  Nations need to know today who is with them, and for the long haul.

And it’s true that you have your own perspective on the Pacific, but it’s not all that different from ours.

It’s true that other competitors are out there, but you’re learning that all that glitters is not gold.

It’s true that the United States can sometimes, I’m sure, seem far away.  It’s a long flight between us, as I just experienced.  The pilot said it was headwinds.  I’m pretty sure it was just a big ocean.

But if there’s one thing I want you to know today, it’s this:  The United States is a Pacific nation.  I grew up on the shores of southern California.  And we are here to stay with Australia as a friend and as an ally.

You heard me say earlier that I had great meetings with Minister Payne in Bangkok and today.

Singularly, my biggest takeaway from those conversations is that the days of Australia as a middle power are coming to an end.  That’s a good thing for the region; it’s a great thing for the world.

It’s a turn that the United States welcomes, because you stand for the same things that we do: transparency and the rule of law, basic human dignity and freedom, responsible trade investment, partnership, not domination.

We’ve seen this as you’ve stepped up in the Pacific.

We welcome your new diplomatic posts all across the neighboring islands.

We’re grateful for your focus on Southeast Asia and your commitment to fighting crime in the Mekong region.

We’re delighted as well to see Australia support regional infrastructure projects – projects that are open, transparent, corruption-free.

And we commend your decision to investigate what Confucius Institutes are really doing on campuses here in your country.  That builds on your courage to shine light on state-sponsored election interference as well.

And the United States is prepared to work right alongside you to ensure that every nation can have free and fair elections.

Nearly two years ago now we deployed our free and open Indo-Pacific strategy.  It’s one that fits with your approach as well.  In fact, we borrowed the name from you.  We both know the principles that we love will strengthen the region.

Implementing them starts, as always, with diplomacy.  We had a great trilateral meeting in Bangkok with our Japanese friends.  We’ve worked together in what we call the Quad, and we are revitalizing it.

It continues too with military cooperation.  I was a soldier once not so long ago, and today we’re conducting military exercises that would’ve been unthinkable alongside our allies the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, as well as New Zealand.  And we’ve taken new steps to reassert the rule of law throughout the South China Sea.  We all need to do more.

Now, economically – and I know there are many senior business leaders here with us today, and I’m thankful for that – economically, we are your number one source for foreign direct investment.  And we’re proud of that.  We do more than 65 billion in trade each year, and President Trump is always eager to find ways to boost America’s numbers.

And we’re encouraging some of our best and brightest towards the success in this region, too. Today I have the honor to announce the creation of four Indo-Pacific Fulbright Scholarships ‒ two funded by the United States and two funded by your great country ‒ to conduct research on the Indo-Pacific region.

So with this good foundation in place, let’s crack on as allies in our shared Pacific home, and all over the world.

Let’s help our neighbors secure their economic independence.  We can get the Papua New Guinea electricity project we started last year over the finish line.  I know we will.  Foreign Minister Payne said she would turn the first shovel when I was with her today.  Let’s help other countries, too, in the region meet their energy needs.

Strong nations prove their mettle when we tackle those security challenges together.  Australia has supported our efforts to put pressure on North Korea to enforce the UN Security Council resolutions that have the opportunity to take a nuclear threat away from the entire world.  And you’ve shown true leadership in making sure that your sovereign decision to protect your 5G networks will work.

But I know we can do more, and we talked about some of it today.  Australians know the scourge of terrorism.  How can we better stop fighters that are in Syria today from returning, from setting up camp in Southeast Asia?  The United States and Australia depend on freedom of the seas so that we can each have prosperity.  And I’m convinced too that we can work together to keep all shipping lanes open, even those that are further away in the Strait of Hormuz.

Let’s do more through meaningful, effective multilateralism, not empty gestures.  It’s one thing to talk; it’s another thing, of course, to do.  And we’ve built good new momentum.  We’ve built momentum within the Quad, and there’s lots of room for growth.

Let’s get more done through the Pacific Islands Forum as well, and through ASEAN, where Foreign Minister Payne and I spent the last two days.  I hope too that those of you who are in business here will visit and attend the Indo-Pacific Business Forum that’ll be held in Bangkok in November, a real opportunity to build economic ties between the United States, Australia, and all of the countries in the region.  It’s a great chance for government and business leaders to explore new investments throughout the region.

I want to end by quoting what one Australian writer said about our friendship back in 1910.

He said, quote, “The United States and Australia are neighbors, united rather than divided by the vast emptiness of [the] Pacific waters.  They face…with an unchanging front of friendship…Together they pursue the high ideals of brotherhood, liberty, and…judgment of a man by his own” – judging “a man by his own inner worth rather than the accidents of birth or [good] fortune.”

That’s a fancy way to say – the way this guy from Kansas would put it, but the point stands:  We’re Pacific friends, bound together by an ironclad commitment to our shared values and our joint success.

And I am confident that this unbreakable alliance will maintain them now and forever.

Because that’s what friends do.

God bless you.

God bless Australia and the United States.

And God bless me as I take questions from Tom today.  (Applause.)  Thank you all.

MR SWITZER:  And I’d like to call on the foreign minister, Marise Payne, too, for the questions as well. Secretary.

Is this, by the way, your first trip to Australia?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  It is.

MR SWITZER:  It is.  Wow.  Bet you haven’t experienced winter days like this in Washington or your hometown of Kansas.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  When I return home, it will be 94 and muggy.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  I did point that out earlier.

MR SWITZER:  Right.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  This is winter in Sydney.  Enjoy.

MR SWITZER:  Yeah.  Now, listen, I know you did an event recently in Bangkok.  Two days ago you did a Bloomberg event similar to this and you talked about North Korea, trade, Hong Kong.  I want to focus more on Australia and the U.S.-China relationship.  Start with some breaking news.  Few hours ago, the new Secretary of Defense said this afternoon that since missiles treaty has expired, the U.S. is keen to explore getting missiles in – around allies in Asia.  Does that mean that allies like Australia should expect missiles in Darwin?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Well, what I think Secretary Esper was referring to is the – we decided that leaving the INF Treaty was necessary after years of work trying to convince the Russians to come back into compliance.  When 50 – only 50 percent of a two-person treaty is complying, it’s a really odd place to find oneself for years, and so President Trump made the decision to recognize the reality.  And so we’ve now begun to take actions which will begin to catch up with where the Russians are so that we too can have the ability to perform the functions that are with those.

As for where we’ll put those, frankly, decisions on force deployments, missile deployments, all the things we do around the world are things that we constantly evaluate.  We want to make sure that we’re protecting our partners, protecting American interests.  I think our efforts to deploy our resources, our defense resources to create deterrence and stability around the world are something we’re always looking at, and we’re happy to do it and we will do so with deep consultation with every partner.

MR SWITZER:  These missiles have a five-and-a-half-thousand-kilometer range.  Shanghai to Darwin is 5,000 kilometers, in range.  How would Beijing feel if Australia had missiles in Darwin, foreign minister?

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Well, I think it’s important to remember that the U.S. has had a strong military presence characterized in a number of ways throughout our region for a very long time now, and we have welcome that.  We have engaged with it.  We have worked with it.  But I think it would be unfortunate to – or to characterize it in the way that you have.  We obviously respect and support the U.S.’s withdrawal from the INF Treaty.  The Secretary makes a very good point about a treaty with two parties in it where only one is pulling forward.

But for us, these are strategic decisions for the United States, and I’m sure they’ll be made in consultation with key partners, as the Secretary has outlined.

MR SWITZER:  Okay, now, you mentioned the Confucius Institutes on Australian campuses.  And as you well know, the Australian government of Prime Minister Turnbull rejected Huawei and the 5G network.  It’s been a very tumultuous relationship between Beijing and Canberra.  Mr. Secretary, how worried should Australians be about the rise of China as a great power?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  It’s really straightforward.  We have in the United States a deep economic relationship with China.  We think there’s real opportunity there.  But we have to be very, very careful. America sat – I think the world, frankly, watched for too long.  We were asleep at the switch as China began to behave in ways that it had not done before.  So whether that’s efforts to steal data across networks, which you just referred to in terms of the decision Australia made; or militarize the South China Sea, something President Xi promised the world he would not do; or engage in activities where they foist money on nations that are desperate for resources and leave them trapped in debt positions which ultimately aren’t about commercial transactions but are about political control – those are the kind of things that I think everyone needs to have their eyes wide open with respect to.  The United States certainly does, and we welcome China’s continued growth, but it’s got to be right.  It’s got to be fair.  It’s got to be equitable.  It’s got to be reciprocal.  They have to behave in a way that ensures that the value sets that Australia and the United States have continue to be the rules by which the entire world engages.

MR SWITZER:  Now, you mentioned the militarization of the South China Sea.  Three years ago last month, the Hague ruled that China’s conduct in the South China Sea was illegal.  Minister, you mentioned China’s illegal conduct in the South China Sea, and the governments of Australia, America, and Japan put out just recently a trilateral statement calling out China over its coercive, unilateral actions and also supporting cooperation in the Pacific.  If China’s conduct is so outrageous, minister, why hasn’t Australia done follow-up freedom of navigation patrols through that contentious 12-nautical-mile zone in the South China Sea?

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  Well, Australia makes our own decisions about how we engage in the region, of course.  But I think that any examination of the ADF participation and engagement in the region would show you a very significant, high level of activity, and a level of activity which clearly prosecutes our case for freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight according to international law in this region and in fact more broadly.

Most importantly, we have been consistent in pursuing the application of international law, the application of the UNCLOS in relation to any of the disputes in the South China Sea, to which we are not a party and nor do we take sides on claimants and their interests.  But we have consistently advocated for the application of the UNCLOS in international law.  We have reiterated that at every opportunity, including as recently as my participation in both the East Asia Summit and the ARF in Bangkok this week and in every other opportunity we have in terms of making public comment.

So Australia is a very consistent messenger on this matter.  We are a consistent partner with our friends the United States.  We work very closely together, but we’ll always make our own decisions in Australia’s national interest.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  May I just add something there?  Sometimes I’ll hear folks talk about trade and economic issues as separate from national security.  Let’s make no mistake about it:  China’s capacity, the People’s Liberation Army’s capacity to do exactly what they’re doing is a direct result of the trade relationships that they’ve developed.  They grew their country on the backs of a set of unfair trade rules.  So they were able to grow their economy at a high rate of speed and – and to steal technology and to force technology transfers.  Those very same economic tools that President Trump is so focused on fixing are what also have enabled China to do all the things they’re doing with their military all around the world.  It underwrites their capacity to build their military.

MR SWITZER:  Thursday night in Canberra, CIS is hosting a debate in front of about 500 people. Professor John Mearsheimer – a West Point graduate like yourself, University of Chicago – he’ll be debating Professor Hugh White, some say one of our leading strategic thinkers.  Let me put you – White’s argument to you:  China buys double what our next-largest customer, Japan, buys from us.  The Chinese economy will grow much bigger than America’s in coming years.  Our China ties saved us from the global financial crisis. As a result – and this is Hugh White’s argument – Canberra would be unwise to support Washington in a confrontation with China that America probably cannot win.  Mike Pompeo.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, look, you can sell your soul for a pile of soybeans, or you can protect your people.  Our mission set is to actually to do both, because we think it’s possible to achieve both of those outcomes.  We think it’s possible to have trade with China and yet require them to behave in – with the same set of rules.  A company, a Chinese company that wants to invest in the United States has one set of rules vis an American company that’d like to invest in China.  No country, no civilization permits this kind of imbalance in rules for an extended period of time and survives.  And so our effort is to restore that reciprocity, restore that balance.  You don’t have to give up all those good things that China does by selling and trading with you.

I will tell you this, too:  We have a lot of trade here too.  We invest an awful lot in foreign direct investment here, and I know these businesses out here would love to do more.

MR SWITZER:  But does – does Washington still —

SECRETARY POMPEO:  And they’d love to do it – they’d love to do it with the same set of rules.

MR SWITZER:  Does Washington still believe unequivocally that the ANZUS alliance obliges Canberra to America’s side in the event of a conflict?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I’m sorry, repeat the question?

MR SWITZER:  The ANZUS alliance.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Oh, yes.

MR SWITZER:  Does that oblige us to – Australia’s participation in any conflict —

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, the ANZUS Treaty is unambiguous.

MR SWITZER:  Okay, but 15 years ago, minister, your predecessor, Alexander Downer, said in Beijing to an ABC journalist, quote, “Washington could not expect Australia to automatically side with the U.S. if China attacked Taiwan.”  Is that your view?

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  You can expect me to be responsible for a lot, Tom, but I’m not sure you can expect me to be responsible for Alexander Downer’s statements 15 years ago.  (Laughter.)

MR SWITZER:  But isn’t he – isn’t Downer reflecting a segment of opinion that says increasingly Australia should be worried about getting too close to America in the event of a spat with China, Mr. Secretary?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  The idea that somehow we’re close to conflict in the military sense with China is what I think those who don’t want to actually confront the real challenges that China present raise as the specter.  This is not the mission set.  The mission set is very, very different.

MR SWITZER:  Foreign minister.

FOREIGN MINISTER PAYNE:  And can I say, Mike and I haven’t spent the hours between 8 o’clock this morning 4 o’clock this afternoon discussing the depth and breadth of the U.S. relationship to bring it to a point of – like that.  I mean, we have spent so much time today across a vast range of policy areas and engagements which illustrate exactly the observation that Mike just made.  There is so much to this relationship predicated in a hundred years of mateship.  If you ask my friend Joe Hockey, I was enthusiastic about pointing out that we’re in the second century now of that hundred years of mateship, which makes me feel old, apart from anything else.  But there is so much more to the Australia-U.S. relationship, so much more to the values that underpin it, and so much more to the alliance than just —

MR SWITZER:  Okay, final point:  The U.S. Government has flagged the prospect of Australia joining an international coalition to protect shipping in the Persian Gulf.  Secretary, how can Canberra play a more important role as an ally, partner in Asia – doing these freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea, for example – when it’s constantly pulled back to the Middle East?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  We have to get goods from A to B, and if A happens to be the Middle East, you’ve got to get them through the strait.  And so we’re asking every nation to join.  This is the deterrent against the bad behavior that the Islamic Republic of Iran has undertaken.  They’ve pulled a British ship already, they mined and took on six other ships from other countries, one of them a European ship, a Norwegian-flagged ship.  We’re asking every nation that has energy needs, that has goods and services passing through to contribute to our effort, which is deter and create stability in the Strait of Hormuz.

So we – we’re asking every nation, Australia and everyone, to come join us in that effort.  Every country will contribute something different – information sharing, ships at sea, communication systems, ISR, all the elements of delivering this defensive deterrent posture in the Strait of Hormuz.  We’re welcoming every country to join us in that effort.

MR SWITZER:  Mr. Secretary, thank you, and unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, we are out of time. The Secretary and the foreign minister are on their way toward their next schedule.  Please join me in thanking Marise Payne and Mike Pompeo.  (Applause.)

U.S. Department of State. 08/04/2019. Joint Statement on Reaffirming U.S.-Australia Health Security Cooperation

The text of the following statement was released by the Governments of the United States of America and Australia regarding progress towards health security cooperation as discussed at the 2019 Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).

Begin Text:

“Given the collective threat posed by infectious diseases – whether through naturally occurring outbreaks or deliberate or accidental release – the governments of the United States and Australialaunched a multi-sectoral partnership one year ago to explore concrete opportunities for joint action to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.  To date, this bilateral partnership convened by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has made measurable progress towards this goal, including:

• Conducting regular interagency health security dialogues to share information, policy perspectives, and best practices from our respective health security investments;
• Arranging consultations with U.S. government Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) country teams and other in-country experts to support DFAT Health Security Scoping Missions in the Indo-Pacific;
• Collaborating on a regional training course addressing challenges in Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) and implementation of AMR National Action Plans;
• Leadership from both countries on the Steering Group of the multilateral Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA 2024), including collaboration on the Sustainable Financing Action Package and a broader commitment to support the GHSA 2024 target.
• Designing and executing the June 2019 inaugural Military Health Security Summit (MHSS) in Sydney to advance military-civilian cooperation and to gain a common understanding of how militaries contribute to shared global health security goals;
• Encouraging government and civil society action against vector-borne disease threats, in conjunction with the 2018 U.S. Science Envoy on Global Health Security;
• Jointly supporting public health epidemiological workforce development and training in Papua New Guinea to build regional health security capacity.

Recognizing that much work remains to be done to accelerate capacity building for health security in the Indo-Pacific Region, the United States and Australia remain committed to this work.  On the occasion of the 2019 AUSMIN, and in support of the goals of the United States Global Health Security Strategy and Australian Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific, our two governments reaffirmed our strong partnership and welcomed continued cooperation throughout the next year and beyond, including activities such as:

• Jointly supporting laboratory biosafety and biosecurity trainings in Australia and Southeast Asia that provide instruction on principles, regulations, and practices;
• Collaborating in the provision of support for Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) in mutually determined countries in Southeast Asia, as well as jointly supporting implementation the Global Field Epidemiology Roadmap;
• Working together in support of efforts to strengthen public health emergency operations centers and conduct simulation exercises in partner countries in region;
• Coordinating support for One Health capacity building through multilateral partners such as the World Health Organization, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the World Organisation for Animal Health;
• Aligning U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) Oceania and ADF Joint Medical Command Strategies, including executing health workforce development activities and collaborating on a regional health security event;
• Continuing leadership, high-level engagement, and support for the Global Health Security Agenda and GHSA 2024 target with Indo-Pacific countries;

The United States and Australia look forward to continuing to work together bilaterally, in relevant regional organizations, and in international forums to ensure an Indo-Pacific region safe and secure from the threat posed by infectious diseases.”

U.S. Department of State. 08/05/2019. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo with Peta Credlin of Sky News

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, welcome.  You’re in Australia for the AUSMIN talks, the annual talks with defense and foreign affairs ministers here in Australia.  They happen annually, as I said.  On your way here, you were part of the trilateral dialogue – Australia, the United States, and Japan.  You made some really strong comments about your return to the region, renewed focus in our region.  Today you reiterated that the U.S. is a Pacific power and you’re here to stay.  In practical terms, what does that mean?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So it’s great to be with you.  Thanks for having me on.  It means exactly what I said.  There’s a long history of Australia and the United States and our partners in the region working together.  We’re making a real commitment.  President Trump understands the challenges that are presented, the opportunities that there are here in the Pacific.  We have enormous trading relationships throughout the region.  America is the largest single investor in Australia; that’s important, it matters to us.  And we want to make sure that our commitment is permanent and deep.  That’s why I’ve traveled – this is I think my third trip this year to the region – and each time we develop deeper, stronger relationships and we put resources where our countries together can work to not only make sure that we are secure and that we keep our respective peoples safe, but that we grow our economies so that our people can continue to do what they want to do to take care of their families and their friends.

QUESTION:  Some issues on the table pertain to or originate in China in particular.  I’ll get to that in a moment.  But one of the big global issues is Iran.  It was for discussion today.  The Australian Government has made some comments after your meetings that it’s seriously considering joining an international coalition in relation to securing shipping lanes.  What would you like to see from Australia in terms of what level of assistance, what type of assistance, if we were to join?  And what are your goals?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Well, Iran, the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, has demonstrated its willingness to pull commercial vessels from the sea.  It put mines on six ships.  It pulled a British vessel from the waters – still holding that ship.  And we just think that’s wrong and needs to be protected against, and the best way to do that is deterrence, to create stability.  So what we’ve asked 60-plus nations to do is provide assistance in securing and deterring – securing from and – excuse me, deterring from and securing the Strait of Hormuz so that commercial vessels can travel through there.  And so Australia could join in a number of ways.  It’s a highly capable, sophisticated military.  There are many assets it could deploy.  We want to make sure we have a comprehensive program so that Iran won’t do something that will either (a) risk that there’ll be a kinetic conflict, which is something the United States certainly doesn’t want, but second, that we protect the Australian economy and the Japanese economy and the South Korean economy, who each depend on goods being able to flow through that strait.

QUESTION:  Your relationship with the United Kingdom is famously called the Special Relationship.  Today you termed the relationship with Australia as the unbreakable alliance.  I listened carefully to questions that occurred after the speech you gave in Sydney, where you made some comments about perhaps a change of focus – your missile program, deployments that could perhaps occur in nation-states of friendly allies like Australia.  Would we be a country that you would want to have missiles based here with, obviously, the agreement of the Australian Government?  You’ve got capacity now in Darwin; those promises have been kept in relation to that deployment.  Is missiles the next step?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  That’s right, we committed to put 2,500 Marines in Darwin.  We’ve now made good on that commitment.  With respect to other tools – not just missile systems but the way we collectively defend our two nations and, frankly, the region as well – I think it’s something we constantly evaluate.  What – the comments that have been reported in the press are mostly related to the fact that the United States did what was obvious.  We withdrew from a treaty we had with Russia that were just two parties that chose not to comply, so we will now do the things we need to do to create stability and peace.  And as we do that, we will evaluate whether there are certain systems, certain missile systems that make sense to put in certain countries.  These will be long, consultative processes as we work our way through them.  But we – we’ll never hesitate, if we think it’s in the strategic interest of the United States of America and the strategic interest of an ally, to engage in a deployment, an operation for freedom of navigation or the deployment of certain systems.  We’ll never hesitate to talk to them about it and share why we think this is important for that country to protect its own people, and then do our best to partner with them to deliver on the things we jointly agree make sense.

QUESTION:  Let’s turn to China.  In May you gave the Thatcher Lecture in London and I want to quote something that struck me.  You said that, “In China, we face a new kind of challenge. It’s an authoritarian regime that’s integrated economically into the West in ways [that] the Soviet Union never was.”  Do you think we in the West – and Australia has a huge economic relationship, as you know, with China.  Do you think we in the West took the windfall gains of China’s growth and perhaps didn’t look beyond the dollar or beyond the yuan, where that displacement might go in terms of our national security framework?  Do we get bought off by China?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I think there’s a risk of many countries, having seen dollar signs and economic opportunity, and didn’t adequately evaluate the security risk that came alongside of that.  I’d put the United States in that same place.  For an awful long time we were asleep at the switch while China engaged in trade practices which stole tens and hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. economic property, that engaged in forced property transfer where American businesses had to give our technology to China just to open up that market.  Those are things that went on for an awfully long time.  President Trump has said no more and is doing his level best to restructure that set of trading rules for the United States so that they are fair and reciprocal.  And so I think every nation has an obligation to make sure that – we want economic growth, that is a necessity – but we can never take that deal to the exclusion of making sure that we protect our citizens.

QUESTION:  I think it’s a mistake to see the U.S.-China trade debate as an economic issue alone.  You’ve made comments here and overseas again today where you said there’s a whole comprehensive strategy deployed by China that is much bigger than just a trade skirmish.  How important is it that nations in the region wake up to this, and are they waking up?  You’ve just come back from Bangkok, and I saw some signs out of various communiques that the neighborhood is alive to what’s happening.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Yeah, I think that’s true.  I think it’s taken a number of us ringing the alarm bells for them to see it.  And sometimes it takes a little bit of time.  When a country shows up and hands you a bagful of money, that seems simple and straightforward and you don’t realize the cost associated with that until, frankly, you’re too far in, when you’ve accepted the debt that comes alongside of that, and now China has not just economic control but the capacity to impose their political and military goals upon you.  It comes back to this:  It comes back to a values set.  The reason I’m here in Australia today is because we’re two democracies that have these deep and abiding, overlapping values.  And so we want to make sure that it is those values – free and open trade, property rights, the liberal order that we all have come to value and benefit from – we want to make sure those are the rules by which the next century is governed as well.  And so it will take a concerted effort on the part of many countries to make sure that that’s the case, and I know we’ve got a great partner in Australia to make that more likely.

QUESTION:  Last question before we go.  You’ve got one of the toughest jobs in the world – in the world.  What keeps you – and you’ve got a background coming out of intelligence as the CIA director, so you have seen and read things that most ordinary people will never see in their lifetime.  What keeps you awake at night and what do you see are the opportunities?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  So the opportunities for expanding democracy and freedom and creating a peaceful, stable world are legion, and this is what we work on every day.  In terms of risks, the world still faces an enormous risk of nuclear proliferation.  And so whether you see the work we’re trying to do on North Korea to get them to denuclearize or work to ensure that the Islamic Republic of Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapons system, those are things that threaten a large number of peoples and can create enormous risk at any one moment in time.  So those are certainly a priority.

The second thing that has truly come to life in the last decade is the threat from cyberwarfare as well.  It’s cheap.  It’s easy.  It’s no longer just nation-states that can engage in it, so you can have armed groups, terrorist groups engage in cyberwarfare as well, which can do – inflict enormous economic damage on democracies.  And so we all need to make sure that we harden our systems, protect ourselves, keep our eyes wide open so that – people talk about election interference; that definitely matters.  We’ve got to get that right.  But to make sure that our commercial interests are protected in such ways that no cyber campaign can ever take down a large swath of the economy as well.

QUESTION:  You not only – I know you’ve got to go but I’m going to push my luck.  Do you think of going into elected office again?  Will we see you in elected office again?

SECRETARY POMPEO:  I’m so focused on making sure at the time I perform my job well for President Trump, it’s hard to know what life will bring next.

QUESTION:  Secretary Pompeo, thank you very much for your time today.

SECRETARY POMPEO:  Thank you, ma’am.

U.S. Department of State. 08/05/2019. Australia and the United States: An Alliance for the Future

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne, Australian Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper met for AUSMIN 2019 in Sydney on 4 August 2019. The Ministers and Secretaries set a path forward for the Australia–U.S. alliance to build a secure, prosperous future.  The two countries intend to work together to:

INDO-PACIFIC PROSPERITY AND STABILITY:

• Provide principles-based, sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific, including through the Australia-Japan-US Trilateral Infrastructure Partnership. Following the successful trilateral mission to Papua New Guinea, both sides intend to support a Trilateral Infrastructure Partnership mission to Southeast Asia in the second half of 2019
• Build effective institutions and governance through coordinated development efforts in the Indo-Pacific, including instituting a Development Dialogue in 2020 in Australia
• Enhance critical mineral supply chain resilience by holding a Australia-US Critical Minerals Dialogue, in Washington DC, to be preceded by stakeholder engagement in Perth
• Work together to support a secure, reliable and affordable supply of energy in the Indo-Pacific, including by holding the second Energy Security Dialogue in 2019, pursuant to the US-Australia Strategic Partnership on Energy
• Promote freedom of navigation and overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea, in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS
• Continue cooperation and coordination for capacity building on maritime issues with Indo-Pacific countries
• Further deepen trilateral cooperation with Japan, and enhance engagement with India, including through the Quad
• Coordinate approaches to the Indian Ocean, including enhancing maritime security and oceans governance

DEEPEN SOUTHEAST ASIA ENGAGEMENT:

• Promote sustainable development in the Mekong, including through initiatives to improve water governance, address transnational crime, expand cooperation in connectivity and support regional architecture such as ACMECS and the Mekong River Commission
• Strengthen ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN-led regional architecture
• Support the implementation of ASEAN’s Indo-Pacific Outlook through practical projects in areas of maritime security, connectivity, Sustainable Development Goals, and economic development

STEP UP PACIFIC ENGAGEMENT:

• Support the implementation of the Boe Regional Security Declaration, including through:
• The Pacific Environmental Security Forum
• Collaboration between the Australia Pacific Security College and Asia Pacific Centre for Strategic Studies
• Accelerate coordination on economic development, infrastructure, defence, policing, maritime security and environmental security in the Pacific

REAFFIRM OUR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP:

• Reaffirm the need for North Korea to abandon its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, emphasize the need for the international community to continue to maintain pressure on North Korea until denuclearization, and work together in support of the international effort to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions on North Korea
• Support stability and security in the Middle East in the face of destabilising state and non-state actors
• Preserve freedom of navigation and regional maritime security in the vital sea lanes of the Middle East
• Prevent an ISIS resurgence in Syria and Iraq, including through our activities under the Global Coalition against ISIS, including our support for Iraq’s counter-terrorism capability development.
• Eradicate the threat of ISIS and its affiliates in the Indo-Pacific, including preventing movement of ISIS fighters throughout Southeast Asia
• Enhance counter-terrorism capacity building in the Indo-Pacific

INTENSIFY FOCUS ON TRANSNATIONAL CHALLENGES:

• Strengthen our partnership on countering foreign interference, including in the Pacific Islands
• Deepen cooperation in the development of cyber capabilities
• Build resilience in our respective critical infrastructure and sensitive sectors, including critical technologies
• Enhance engagement on civil space cooperation activities and pursue a potential Government to Government Space Cooperation Agreement
• Build capacity in the Women, Peace and Security agenda

DEEPEN LONGSTANDING DEFENCE COOPERATION:

• Build interoperability and the ability to work more closely with regional partners
• Enhance defence engagement and capacity building with partners in Indo-Pacific
• Strengthen our ability to work closely together to respond to developments in the Indo-Pacific and to improve coordination of responses to shared challenges in the region
• Deepen defence collaboration in capability development, science and technology and industrial cooperation, including further cooperation on emerging and leading edge technologies like hypersonics, space and cyber
• Increase security cooperation with partners in the region through joint training and exercise opportunities

MAXIMISE OUR ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP

• Maximize the benefits of the Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement for our people, which has already increased two-way trade to $65.5 billion USD in 2018, creating more than 500,000 jobs
• Accelerate two-way investment: in 2017, U.S. direct investment in Australia was $168.9 billion USD and Australian direct investment in the United States was $66.7 billion USD
• Focus on growth and security of future-oriented sectors of the economy, including critical minerals, civil-space industry, and energy

FOCUS ON YOUTH AND THE FUTURE:

• Support to the United States Studies Centre and the American Australian Association to offer additional US Congressional internships
• Fund an additional four Fulbright scholarships to mark the 70th anniversary of the Australia-US Fulbright Treaty, the Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Indo-Pacific Studies
• Strengthen a strong science, technology and innovation cooperation including in emerging fields of artificial intelligence and quantum sciences

AGOA

U.S. Department of State. 08/02/2019. United States and Côte d’Ivoire to Co-host the 2019 AGOA Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

The United States and Côte d’Ivoire will co-host the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire from August 4-6.

The Forum will bring together senior government officials from the United States and the 39 AGOA-eligible sub-Saharan African countries to discuss ways to boost economic cooperation and trade between the United States and Africa.  Regional Economic Communities, the private sector, and civil society will also participate.

The theme of this year’s Forum is “AGOA and the Future: Developing a New Trade Paradigm to Guide U.S.-Africa Trade and Investment.”  The 2019 Forum will explore new tools that both the U.S. and African governments have developed over the past year and how to use them most effectively.  It will also highlight the important role played by women, youth, civil society, and the private sector in promoting trade, expanding economic growth, and generating prosperity.

Representatives from the private sector, civil society, the U.S.-sponsored African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), and the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) have organized AGOA Private Sector and Civil Society Forums for August 4.  The AGOA Forum Ministerial will follow August 5-6, bringing together senior government officials from the United States and the current 39 African beneficiary countries.  A trade exhibition will run throughout the official program.

The U.S. delegation will be led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative C.J. Mahoney and includes Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy, as well as senior officials from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Labor, Transportation, Treasury, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, as well as the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the United States African Development Foundation.  A bipartisan Congressional delegation will also participate in the forum.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act, which enhances access to the U.S. market for most products of qualifying sub-Saharan African countries, has been the cornerstone of the U.S. government’s trade policy with sub-Saharan Africa since 2000.  The law mandates that each year a special Forum be convened to discuss issues related to the implementation of the law and issues of economic cooperation and trade in general.  The Forum location alternates between the United States and Africa.  Previous AGOA Forum hosts include Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, Gabon, and Togo.

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LGCJ.: