Anthony Albanese touched on the city of Tokyo and will join high-level talks with the leaders of the United States, Japan and India.
In his first international trip, the recently sworn prime minister will meet with Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida and Narendra Modi on Tuesday as part of a quadripartite security dialogue to discuss security issues in the Indo-Pacific region.
The leaders intend to discuss security issues in the region, including the signing of a security agreement between China and the Solomon Islands, as well as climate change, infrastructure needs and cooperation in disaster relief.
This comes at a time when China’s foreign minister is due to land in Haniara later this week to formally sign the agreement.
Quad is also set to introduce new maritime measures to stop illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific region, including using satellite technology to track illegal fishermen, according to the Financial Times.
On Monday, President Biden met with Prime Minister Kishida, where he outlined the Indo-Pacific Economic Welfare Mechanism, which includes a dozen initial partners that make up 40 percent of world GDP.
The partners are Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei.
Mr Albanese said the Quad dialogue would send a signal to the world that a new government had emerged in Australia.
“This is a government that represents a change in the way we deal with the world on issues such as climate change, but also a continuity in the way we respect democracy and value our friendships and long-standing alliances,” he said. told reporters in Canberra before leaving on Monday.
Mr Albanese will also hold individual bilateral talks with leaders over Tuesday.
The Prime Minister is joined by Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and the trip will be announced by the head of the Office of National Intelligence and senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mr Albanese also had a 25-minute conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while in the air on Monday.
The couple discussed ongoing support for the AUKUS tripartite agreement and climate change, and Mr Albanez described the call as “a friendly and very positive discussion of our strong relationship between our two countries”.
On Sunday night, Mr Albanese received a phone call from President Biden, who, according to the prime minister, was “fruitful and productive”.
https://thewest.com.au/news/world/albanese-steps-up-to-first-quad-meeting-c-6910415
