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

Multilateral agreements most often underpin our regional stability and prosperity because they foster cooperation, formalise security commitments and build trust. But, as well as the regional arrangements I have already mentioned, there are a number of bilateral and trilateral defence relationships that are also very important. We have been working hard on strengthening our trilateral defence cooperation with Japan and the United States. They both share our commitment to the rules based order and strengthening of our regional security architecture that underpin our region's stability and prosperity. In fact, during the dialogue I met with the US Secretary of Defense and Japan's Minister of Defense, Ms Inada. We reiterated our close commitment to coordination and cooperation in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and maritime security—of which we received a timely reminder on the weekend, with the very shocking collision between a freighter and the US Navy ship USS Fitzgerald. We extend our condolences to those members of the US Navy on that ship, their families and the US Navy itself. (Time expired)