Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Apart from the opportunity to show the defence minister, Minister Nakatani, the very impressive HMAS Canberra in Sydney on Sunday, it was a great opportunity to develop our defence relationship with Japan even further.

Of course, there are shared strategic interests and common alliances between Australia, Japan and the United States, in particular. Just last week, on 19 November, I met with the Singaporean defence minister, Dr Ng. The Singaporean Minister for Defence had visited Australia to observe some of the Singaporean troops taking part in an exercise in Northern Australia. We had already made comprehensive progress in strengthening our defence relationship when a strategic partnership was signed by prime ministers in June last year. This was a useful opportunity to follow that up and have that conversation.

The Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, who I understand the Attorney-General also met with, General Panjaitan, was also in Australia last week— (Time expired)