Remarks With Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith Before Their Meeting

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
April 8, 2009




Date: 04/08/2009 Description: Remarks by Secretary Clinton and Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith before their meeting. State Dept Photo SECRETARY CLINTON: Hello, everyone. Well, I am very pleased that we’re going to have a bilateral meeting this afternoon with the minister. And then tomorrow, we’ll have our Australian-U.S. ministerial meeting which will cover, in depth, a wide range of both bilateral, regional, and global issues. But we have few better friends in the world than Australia. And it is such a joy to work with the Australian Government. We have a lot of common values and common interests and common causes that we pursue.

So, Mr. Minister, thank you for being here.

FOREIGN MINISTER SMITH: Well, Madame Secretary, thanks very much. It’s great to be back in Washington. I’m very pleased to conduct a formal bilateral meeting with you and very pleased that tomorrow we do the AUSMIN meeting with our respective defense colleagues. The AUSMIN meeting underpins the alliance. It’s an alliance that’s served us very well for over 60 years. It’s an indispensible part of our strategic security and defense arrangements. And you’re quite right; we see our alliance as a growing asset where we deal not just with bilateral and regional matters, but with global issues as well.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Exactly. Well, thank you very much.

FOREIGN MINISTER SMITH: So I’m very pleased to be here.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you all.

FOREIGN MINISTER SMITH: Thank you.

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PRN: 2009/308