Secretary Marco Rubio (00:00):
… both the Foreign Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister for Defense, for both joining us here today. This is an incredibly strong alliance. In fact, as we were discussing a few moments ago, it is our only ally that has fought with us in every war, certainly over the last four or five decades, and we're very grateful to them for that. And this is a very strong partnership, it's a strong alliance. And what we want to do is continue to build on it. We think we have a lot of momentum behind this alliance, coming off the visit with the Prime Minister here in October, which we also had a chance to participate in and then follow-up events to it. And we felt very strongly after that, that we have real momentum. We wanted to do this here before the end of the year to continue to build on that alliance and to continue to build on that momentum that came from that meeting and to work together on our shared priorities, and we have so many.
(00:49)
We would truly have no better friend. In addition to that strong alliance, we're also deeply committed to the Quad, the concept of in conjunction with Japan and India, the building out of this Quad, which is something you'll see. In fact, it was my first meeting as Secretary of State. I had been confirmed, sworn in downstairs and came right up on that elevator and into this room. And it was in this very room that I did my first event as Secretary of State with the Quad. I think we've had at least three meetings this year, if I recall correctly, and we'll continue to build on that in the year to come. We look to do more of those. And so we have a lot of things we've worked together on at the direction of the President, AUKUS is full steam ahead, as he said.
(01:32)
And I know the Department of War, Secretary Hegseth will discuss that further, has conducted a review, which, it's a review about how we can expand this relationship, about how to build on it so that it can be about many things. And I know we've also signed Landmark Critical Mineral Framework Agreement. This is something we share in common, not just with Australia, but with many of our allies around the world, the desire to diversify supply chains and the belief that in order for us to be able to do anything, whether it's defend our countries, defend our allies or defend each other, but also to build our economies and to prosper as economies, we have to have critical mineral supplies and supply chains that are reliable and that are diverse, and not overly invested in one place where they can be used as leverage against us or our partners of the world.
(02:22)
And so this is something that you'll find the US and Australia working very closely on and it's at the cornerstone of everything we plan to do together in the months and years to come. So I want to welcome you to Washington. Thank you for joining us and doing and agreeing to doing it here. At the end of this year, I know you have many other obligations and places you're going to be traveling quite extensively in the days to come as well, so we're very grateful that you were willing to come here and join us. And we look forward to reciprocating in the new year by visiting you in Australia as I look forward to… I actually have never been and I need to go. And it's a very efficient trip because I can say I went to a country and a continent all at once. And so very rarely can you say that, so thank you for joining us here today. We're grateful and honored by your presence.
Minister Penny Wong (03:09):
Thank you very much, Secretary Rubio. And I thank you and Secretary Hegseth for hosting us in this extraordinary room, as you said, where we've had our first Quad meeting after you were sworn in. Richard and I are so happy to be here, so honored to participate in another AUSMIN meeting, and to build on the very successful meeting between the President and the Prime Minister, including the historic critical minerals deal that they delivered. AUSMIN was established, that is, this meeting was established under President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Bob Hawke. And in 1985, President Reagan spoke of our common defense of freedom from the first and second World Wars and said, "All this has nurtured the bonds of friendship between our two peoples. Today, the United States and Australia, as much as ever, rely on each other."
(04:05)
That remains true today. And as Secretary Rubio said, Australian soldiers have fought beside American troops in every major battle since World War I, and we continue to align each other, not just our service men and women, whom we thank for their service, but all our people. And that's because the work we do together is indispensable to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. This is something Secretary Rubio has spoken so eloquently about. The United States is our principal ally and our principal strategic partner. And together, we navigate volatility, we invest in each other, we invest in the region's security and we boost each other's prosperity, whether that's through investment in critical minerals, critical technology, Australian superannuation, or of course, AUKUS.
(04:55)
Australia's approach to the alliance has always worked to ensure it delivers concrete benefits for our security and prosperity and for that of the United States, and AUKUS is central to that. A win for Australia, a win for the US and a win for the United Kingdom. And we welcome President Trump's statement. We are full steam ahead, we are full steam ahead. So we look forward very much to these consultations today, very happy to be here in Washington. We'd also, Secretary Rubio, be very honored to welcome you to Australia when you are able to come. So thank you again for hosting us, we look forward to the discussions.
Secretary Pete Hegseth (05:36):
Secretary Rubio, thank you for hosting us. Deputy Prime Minister Marles, we've seen each other often and we will continue to. And for Minister Wong, thank you for being here. It was mentioned this is the 40th year of AUSMIN, 1985, and it's not lost on any of us, the depth of the friendship our two countries have had and our militaries have had for quite some time. And it was Ronald Reagan who, just like the Trump administration, put a practical application to that partnership 40 years ago by ensuring that our leaders are meeting together regularly to stay on track in rowing in the same direction because we share the same values, the same neighborhood, both Pacific nations, and our leadership's coming together on a regular basis is a reflection of that.
(06:19)
On the defense side, we're working on force posture, we're working on defense industrial cooperation. First on force posture initiatives, we're upgrading infrastructure on air bases in Queensland and the Northern Territory. That allows for additional US bomber rotations. We're upgrading logistics and infrastructure in Darwin so more US Marines can do rotational deployments and pre-positioning MV22 ospreys. This establishes new and resilient logistics networks across Australia. We're deepening our cooperation on the defense industrial base, cooperation on guided weapons production and lethal capabilities, two year roadmaps on Australia's guided weapons and explosive ordinance enterprise, groundbreaking cooperative actions on things like GMLRS, guided missile launch rocket systems and precision strike missiles.
(07:08)
And we're working toward co-production and co-sustainment of hypersonic attack cruise missiles, co-sustainment, air-to-air missiles, cooperative programs across the board, including Mark 54 torpedoes. We're also building on the historic framework and critical minerals cooperation that's been mentioned already by President Trump and Prime Minister Albanese, signed in October. Critical minerals and rare earths are a huge part of ensuring both countries can operate the way we need to in that region around the world. And finally, as we move, as was mentioned, full steam ahead on AUKUS, we applaud Australia's upcoming delivery of an additional $1 billion to help expand US submarine production capacity.
(07:50)
We're strengthening AUKUS so that it works for America, for Australia and for the UK. There's a lot we're going to do together in the months ahead. This meeting will be, as was laid out by President Trump, as I mentioned at Reagan just a couple days ago, these are practical, realistic ways that our two countries can come together to ensure that we provide peace through strength for both of our nations. The stronger we are together, the more we can deter the kinds of conflicts neither of us want to see, and this is a deepening of that partnership. Grateful to be here, thank you.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles (08:24):
Well, Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth, Marco, Pete, on behalf of Penny and I, thank you very much for having us here in Washington today. It is a real pleasure to be here in the 40th anniversary of AUSMIN. Our relationship with the United States is the most important relationship that we have. And indeed, our alliance with the United States is really the cornerstone of Australian strategic and foreign policy. And today is an important moment to take that forward again over the next 12 months. We are living in a much more contested world where it really matters to be doubling down with friends and allies. And obviously, America is front and center and foremost for Australia in that respect. We are very grateful for the meeting that happened between Prime Minister Albanese and President Trump a couple of months ago. It's very significant in the context of the relationship.
(09:26)
I think also, President Trump has given us the motto for our meeting today, which is full steam ahead. And it is very much full steam ahead in terms of the alliance, in terms of the progress on AUKUS, in preparing ourselves for the establishment of the Submarine Rotational Force West at the end of 2027. That is a significant moment in the journey of AUKUS. But right now, we've had an increased number of visits of US nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, including the USS Vermont, which has been at HMS Sterling over the last six weeks or so, where it's undergone the most extensive maintenance that a US nuclear submarine has undertaken outside of the United States. And we are really pleased with the progress that we are seeing in terms of building Australia's capabilities to ultimately be able to operate our own nuclear-powered submarine capability going forward.
(10:26)
At every AUSMIN meeting that we've had since 2022, when Penny and I first started attending these AUSMIN meetings, a central part of what we have sought to do in the defense space is to increase the US footprint in Australia. And this AUSMIN will be no different, as Pete has just taken you through, be it infrastructure which enables greater bomber rotations in Australia, or be it what we are doing in terms of enhancing logistics capability of the United States in Australia, having more American equipment be stored in Australia, for example, the Ospreys. These are just examples of what we are doing across every domain, air, sea and ground, but also space and cyber, to have the most extensive American force posture that we have seen in terms of the breadth of that in the Australian continent.
(11:24)
And that is so important going forward, to make very clear in our region that Australia and America stand side by side in working together to contribute to the peace and security of the Indo-Pacific. As we meet today, there are almost 900 Australian service men and women who are embedded in the United States defense forces across the US. Indeed, the deputy commanders of the US Army, the US Navy and the US Air Force in the Pacific are all now institutionally Australian, and that is an example of the degree to which our two countries work so closely together in respect of defense. Penny and I are really looking forward to taking our relationship and our alliance again forward in the meetings that we have today. We're working really well with this administration and we are very excited about working with you, Marco and Pete, to take the alliance forward into the future.
Minister Penny Wong (12:22):
Thank you.
Secretary Marco Rubio (12:23):
Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
Secretary Rubio, what do you think of Australia's [inaudible 00:12:30] social media to children?
Speaker 6 (12:24):
[inaudible 00:12:50] to get your things together.