Media Doorstop, Washington DC

Subjects: Counterpart meeting with Secretary Mattis; North Korea; Iran; DJI Drones; Philippines; Foreign Fighters; Afghanistan; Syria.


QUESTION:                           

Minister, what can you tell us about your meetings today?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Well, this visit comes at an extremely important time, both in the international environment, but particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. I've had the opportunity to come to Washington via Pacific Command and to meet there with Admiral Harris, with Admiral Swift, and other senior members of the US military leadership in the Pacific, to discuss the work that we do together and the common challenges that we face. Similarly, here in Washington today I've had a briefing on ballistic missile defence issues, and then also a very valuable meeting with Secretary Mattis. It is the fourth, fifth, I think perhaps even the sixth time we've had a chance to meet in 2017, and that has given us a really solid foundation for our discussions, both in relation to the issues we deal with every day between our two roles, but more importantly the relationship, which is so deep and so strong, is reinforced by all of those discussions.

This afternoon I've met for the first time with the new Secretary of Navy, Secretary Spencer, and we of course are commencing a very significant modernisation of the Australian Navy over the coming years, starting in 2018 with the first of our Offshore Patrol Vessels, moving on to Future Frigates, and of course Future Submarines. Those undertakings are very important for our relationship with the United States in terms of interoperability, in terms of our ability to work together, particularly across the Indo-Pacific. And having started my relationship with Secretary Spencer today, I look forward to developing that in coming times, particularly as we discuss the work we're doing on the JSF as well, which is of course an Air Force project in Australia and Navy program in the United States. So a lot to talk about and a lot to do.

QUESTION:                           

Secretary Mattis, in your pre-meeting discussions today, praised you as a friend who can tell him what he needed to hear, not what he wanted to hear. Did you have any hard truths for him today?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Not so much hard truths at all, but the subjects we discuss are tough. There is no question that the strategic environment, particularly because of the provocations of North Korea, is one which occupies a great deal of our thinking and a great deal of our time. We have both recently been in discussions with our Japanese and Republic of Korea colleagues – in fact, I was in Seoul only a week or so ago – and they are issues which, as I said, are a key focus for us.

QUESTION:                           

Obviously North Korea has dominated the political debate here in the United States as well. Have you got any concerns about how escalating rhetoric could be impacting – between the United States and North Korea – could be impacting Australia?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Well, my real concerns are about North Korea's provocative behaviour. My real concerns are about the fact that they know that their actions are illegal, that they are unlawful; they are in absolute breach of UN Security Council resolutions, and in fact of world expectations; they are not necessary. We also know that the efforts of the Republic of Korea, of Japan, of the United States and of Australia in terms of sanctions are entirely focussed on trying to bring the regime to its senses, trying to illustrate to the regime that there is a cost to that sort of behaviour. Some of those sanctions are only coming into full implementation now, and of course they must be allowed to operate fully. As we watch those progress, we hope that they will be persuasive for the regime.

QUESTION:                           

And what is the timeframe on those sanctions? Is it weeks, months, years that you decide, okay, they're not working or they are working? How long should we wait?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Well, I'm not sure what you would suggest the alternative is, because frankly we have to pursue the diplomatic and the economic path that we have undertaken through the sanctions process. In Australia's case, it includes autonomous sanctions as well against 37 entities and 31 individuals, I believe – autonomous sanctions that really send a very strong message about our view. We encourage all of our partners and our allies to follow that same path, to ensure that they are implementing sanctions in the most appropriate way possible and sending the strongest possible message to the DPRK.

QUESTION:                            

One of the topics today that's been discussed has been the Iran deal, and the President has said he's made a decision on that. What's Australia's position? Do we still support the Iran deal?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

I think the Foreign Minister made her views clear yesterday. It's self-evidently not everybody's preference, but from Australia's perspective it is in place and that is our continuing position.

QUESTION:                           

There's been some discussions about Chinese drones and the ADF stopping the use of them. It follows a move by the United States as well, as I understand it, where they also stopped using these Chinese-manufactured drones. What's the reason for that and is this a permanent halt to those drones?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

So, following the decision of the US Army, we reviewed our own use of those particular articles and paused our use of them for a while. Following that review, we were comfortable with resuming their use in an unclassified situation.

QUESTION:                           

Okay, and so- but in a classified situation, they will no longer be used?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Well, I wouldn't talk about that in that way, as you would understand, but we are very careful and very aware of the cyber threat wherever it occurs. In fact, through the work of our information warfare specialists, through the work of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, we remain completely vigilant on those issues.

QUESTION:                            

In your discussions with Secretary Mattis, did you have any conversations about foreign fighters or the ISIS threat in the Pacific region?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

That's a very good question and we most certainly did, and particularly in relation to what has most recently been happening in the southern Philippines and in Marawi. I met with my counterpart, Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, in Manila again about a week ago, and he and we are very concerned about ensuring that we counter the extremist threat wherever it presents itself, and Marawi is a timely reminder to the region, a timely reminder for all of us that we have to be ever-vigilant in that regard as well. There are a lot of fronts on which we are currently focused.

In terms of the region, we are working closely with our counterpart nations – with Indonesia, with Malaysia, with Singapore and with the Philippines, indeed – to ensure that we keep a weather eye on the behaviour of people we know who have previously associated in the extremist space, and ensuring that where possible we are deterring the return of foreign fighters. We know that that is an issue as efforts progress in Iraq and in Syria. There is inevitably going to be some who will try to flee those areas and perhaps try to return to our region. So, acutely aware of that, and this is a whole-of-government approach. We work through the Attorney-General, through the Foreign Minister, through myself, through the Minister for Justice, to make sure that where we need to touch with our neighbours, with our counterparts and across the region, that we have those contacts and that we are working together, that we are sharing information and that we are minimising the threat as best as we possibly can.

QUESTION:                           

Did you get the impression from Secretary Mattis that it was a priority for the US? I mean, they've obviously got a lot of fronts to contend with as well.

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Well, certainly the issues in the Philippines are a priority, and they know – one reason they know is because I've reminded them consistently at every counter-ISIL meeting that I've participated in since I was appointed in 2015 – that the challenge we face is ensuring that we don't transfer the extremist threat and extremist behaviour from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific, and particularly the Southeast Asian region. We work, as I said, across all of those portfolios and also with our US counterparts in that. So I know that when we held our AUSMIN talks in Sydney in June, both Secretary Tillerson and Minister Bishop and Secretary Mattis and I also discussed this issue. It is firmly, and at the moment permanently, on our agenda unfortunately.

QUESTION:                           

Secretary Mattis rather quietly this week announced increases to the US troop numbers in Afghanistan. Did he have any specific asks of you? Did he give any indication that perhaps Australian troops might be requested?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

No, no specific asks in today's discussion, but we have of course recently contributed an increased presence of another 30 personnel who are involved in the training and mentoring roles that we've been working on in Karga for some time now. Our priority is making sure that the Afghan National Security Forces are able, in due course, to take responsibility for security in their own nation. We saw with interest the release of the South Asia Strategy that the President and his national security team released in recent weeks, and we'll continue to work with NATO and with the international partners to make the contribution that we are making.

Australia's longest military engagement is our engagement in Afghanistan. We have lost over 40 lives in that engagement – men who've paid the ultimate sacrifice for the principles that Australia and the United States stand up for every day. So I'm very conscious of the contribution that we've made and very conscious of the hard work that the men and women of the ADF are doing there right now.

QUESTION:                           

Just finally on Syria, did the Secretary have any requests of you on that? Did you have any further discussions about operations in Syria?

MARISE PAYNE:                   

Not specifically, no. But as I've said in the Parliament recently, we're making a contribution in Syria, particularly through our Air Task Group, through air-to-air refuelling, through the work of the Wedgetail, and that is part of ensuring that we provide support to the forces who are endeavouring to retake Raqqa. That is an effort that is progressing, I think inching closer and closer to an achievement there, but I don't want to say that that is inevitable and close. It's really, really a hard slog, it's really hard work. Let's not forget that Raqqa was identified as the caliphate in the first place. It's not going to be given up easily, and those who are engaged in that fight are fighting very hard.

Thanks very much.