For their inaugural annual Australia New Zealand Leaders Meeting, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia met in Sydney this morning.
“It was great to meet with Prime Minister Albanese again further cementing the close renewed relationship between Australia and New Zealand,” Jacinda Ardern said.
“It is important that we are able to continue to communicate freely and coordinate across the full spectrum of domestic and international issues.
“In what is an increasingly uncertain and risky geostrategic environment, having close friends that share values and work together is more essential than ever for the security and well-being of our citizens and the region.
“Having a number of my Cabinet colleagues, and their Australian counterparts, attend our meeting was a valuable opportunity for us to strengthen those individual relationships, and discuss the range of our governments’ mutual policy interests,” Jacinda Ardern said.
They also discussed cooperation and engagement in the Pacific region, climate change and the obligation on countries to commit to ambitious climate action, as well as their respective responses to Russia’s illegitimate invasion of Ukraine. The two countries agreed to identify options by ANZAC Day 2023. They also discussed changes to the situation of New Zealanders in Australia, including ways to streamline New Zealanders’ access to Australian citizenship.
“New Zealand is a proud pacific nation, and with the Pacific Islands Forum next week, we discussed in detail our shared view that the perspectives and priorities of Pacific island countries need to guide all regional engagement.
“New Zealand has also reiterated our commitment to support COVID-19 recovery, regional prosperity and security, including through joint support for high-quality, climate-resilient infrastructure, and will be discussing with other pacific countries how we can continue to support the region,” Jacinda Ardern said.
The success of the Single Economic Market created by the CER and the significance of the agreement in promoting economic security for both countries were also mentioned by the prime ministers. They decided that later in the year, economic ministers should get together to discuss further ways to encourage consumers and businesses travelling over the Tasman Sea and help both nations’ economies recover more quickly.
We also committed to formal bilateral meetings every year between our ministers of foreign affairs, defence, finance, and climate change as a sign of the relationship’s reset.
The Prime Ministers agreed to continue collaborating closely to solve these and other challenges that are significant to both nations, and they outlined the entire range of topics discussed in a Joint Statement.