Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I have often said that our world is being reshaped and the focus of that reshaping is in our region. What does that mean for Australia? It means we know we cannot achieve the region we want alone. We have to work with allies, we have to work with partners and we have to work with other nations to enhance our collective security and our prosperity. I was privilege to visit Japan and meet with the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister Kamikawa, and the Japanese National Security Advisor, Akiba Takeo. Australia and Japan have never been closer. We share an ambition for an Indo-Pacific which is peaceful, stable and prosperous in which sovereignty is respected. Just as we do with other like-minded nations, I was also able to catch up with other leaders in Tokyo, including my good friend the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, James Cleverly, and Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Melanie Joly. In these challenging times we need to work together on regional and global challenges, particularly the Hamas-Israel conflict.