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

We have a long and proud history of defence cooperation with ASEAN member nations and we're very committed to strengthening our defence engagement with our regional partners to both build capacity and improve interoperability. We are also very committed to building people-to-people links within our region. As a result of the special summit, we're establishing a new ASEAN-Australia Defence Postgraduate Scholarship program, through my department, which will see one person from each ASEAN nation awarded a scholarship to study here as part of a cohort. Commencing in early 2019, the program is designed to foster cooperation and equip ASEAN practitioners further in the field of regional defence engagement through a two-year Master of Strategic Studies postgraduate degree in Australia. This exemplifies the new era in our defence partnership with ASEAN and strengthens our substantial and practical contribution to regional security and prosperity, a number of aspects I saw in action last year in my visit to a number of ASEAN nations.