The Minister for Defence, the Hon. Joel Fitzgibbon MP has returned from a highly productive visit to Canada, Spain, Portugal and the UK, where he met with a range of ministerial counterparts and senior officials to advance issues relating to Australia’s global and regional defence interests.
Mr Fitzgibbon attended a meeting of defence ministers from those countries contributing troops to Southern Afghanistan. The ministers discussed the current situation in Afghanistan and ways that the civil-military coordination effort could be improved.
Mr Fitzgibbon also had valuable one-on-one discussions with his counterparts from the UK, Canada and the Netherlands, as well as with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
On a stopover in New York, while travelling from Canada to Spain, Mr Fitzgibbon took advantage of the opportunity to meet with Australia’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Robert Hill, to discuss what more Australia can do to assist in the resourcing and coordination efforts for the United Nations Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide.
Once in Spain, Mr Fitzgibbon met with the Spanish ministers for Defence and Foreign Affairs and discussed the future of our respective commitments and interests in Afghanistan, specifically the stabilisation and reconstruction of Afghanistan over the long-term.
While in Spain, Mr Fitzgibbon saw first hand the progress of several major Australian acquisition projects based in Spain, such as the air warfare destroyer, new amphibious ships, and multi-role tanker transport, which will provide vital future capabilities for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).
Mr Fitzgibbon also announced that Defence would be establishing a resident Defence Attaché in Spain and signed a memorandum of understanding on materiel cooperation.
Mr Fitzgibbon then travelled to Portugal where he met with the Minister for Defence and Minister for Foreign Affairs to discuss cooperation in East Timor and the outlook and our respective contributions as part of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
“I was delighted that Portugal and Australia are in close agreement on the need to further coordinate our security assistance to East Timor,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
Mr Fitzgibbon’s final meeting was the Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial talks (AUKMIN) in Leeds, also attended by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Stephen Smith and their counterparts, John Dutton and David Miliband in the United Kingdom.
“Our discussions at AUKMIN have enhanced our existing deep and longstanding ties with the United Kingdom and helped to identify ways in which we can work more closely together on key challenges including counter-proliferation and Afghanistan,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
The four ministers agreed on the importance of further coordination of international civilian and military assistance to Afghanistan.
In the margins of AUKMIN, Mr Fitzgibbon and the UK Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton, also endorsed the findings of a classified joint review of the Australia-UK Defence relationship and signed a public statement formalising our mutual intent to maintain and build momentum of our recent operational cooperation.
“Overall, this visit allowed me to engage with my counterparts from nine different countries and advance vital issues such as Afghanistan, East Timor and operational and material cooperation,” Mr Fitzgibbon said.
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Minister For Defence Completes Successful Visit
