Doorstop, Kongsberg Norway

SUBJECTS: Australia-Norway relationship; Kongsberg strategic partnership; Missile manufacturing in Australia.  

JOURNALIST: You met with [Minister] Gram in Australia recently and you’ve met again. What kind of political discussions have you had?

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: We’ve signed up with Kongsberg as a strategic partner in terms of building Australia's own Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise. So Kongsberg will be– Kongsberg has a presence in Australia now, and it will be opening up a facility to manufacture both the Joint Strike Missile and the Naval Strike Missile in Australia. What I think that has done, it's given a strategic dimension to the relationship between Australia and Norway. Obviously, we're on other sides of the world but we share values, we share a great strategic alignment, we have a high level of trust and it's really opening the door for a much greater engagement in our bilateral relationship. We've now met Bjorn a couple of times in the last month, as you rightly say. We will be looking at developing a strategic dialogue between Australia and Norway. We're on other sides of the planet, but we have a lot in common. You know, we both have large maritime areas that we need to ensure the rules-based order is maintained in, we have large maritime areas that we need to look at, surveil and patrol, we really have that in common. We obviously have in common our relationships with the United States and so there's a lot to share in relation to that. We, in the Indo-Pacific, see a lot of the way in which China is shaping the world around it. Clearly, in Europe, there's a view of how Russia is acting. And I think that enables us to have, in a really trusted space, a sharing of experiences. So we're really– this is a relationship between two friends, which is actually really exciting in terms of where it's going.

JOURNALIST: I think Gram’s visit was the first visit by a Norwegian Minister of Defence to Australia. Why do you think that happens now? Why are you engaged in a closer relationship?

MARLES: The short answer to the question is Kongsberg. Kongsberg is what's opened the door and the fact that we are now working so closely with Kongsberg in terms of the development of our own Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise. That Australia has decided to manufacture missiles in Australia, using Kongsberg as a strategic partner, that is really what has opened the door. But having opened the door, there is so much for us to do, so much for us to share. We have so much in common and so much alignment. So it's actually, I think it's actually a really exciting moment between two countries who have always been very friendly, high levels of trust, but now have a genuine strategic dimension to the relationship. So we're very excited about it. 

JOURNALIST: So why Kongsberg?

MARLES: I suppose the answer question is we have been a customer of Kongsberg for some time across a range of platforms, but specifically in respect of both the Naval Strike Missile and Joint Strike Missile, so we know Kongsberg from the perspective of being a customer. As we are looking to ourselves begin or see a missile manufacturing industry be an important part of Australia's defence industry, Kongsberg was a natural partner. I mean, we knew them well, they had an interest in operating in operating in Australia, we had an interest in working with them and that's really where it comes from. 

JOURNALIST: Do you see any further cooperation, further defence cooperation with Norway? 

MARLES: Yeah, 100 per cent. Totally. I think this is one of the things that is coming from this. I mean, at a very kind of granular level, we will see Norway participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre, which is our major biennial exercise for the Australian Defence Force, that happens every two years. So next year is a year where we will do Talisman Sabre and Norway will be participating in that. The UK's carrier strike group will be coming through the Indo-Pacific next year, Norway will have a participation in that as well. So at the level of exercises we have engagement. But I think what we've discussed is that the opportunity for us to cooperate across space, cyber, obviously defence industry, intelligence sharing, really there's a whole opportunity for us to do that. I think one of the things– I was at NATO in Washington in July and one of the real themes of the most recent NATO meeting has been that there is such an interconnectedness between the Indo-Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other. I mean, these two theatres are becoming increasingly interconnected. And so we find ourselves seeing great relevance in building the strategic relationships with European countries and Norway, specifically, as we started to look at each other, is a country where we have a lot in common. I mean, there's a lot of similar challenges that Norway is facing which actually we're facing as well, and I think we can work really closely together and learn from each other. 

JOURNALIST: I have a very brief question, which is why did you choose Kongsberg? 

MARLES: Yeah, we've been– well, firstly they make a good product and so we've been a customer of Kongsberg across a range of platforms for quite a while now, but specifically in relation to the Naval Strike Missile and the Joint Strike Missile. From there, as Australia was looking to develop its own missile manufacturing capability, I'd say missile manufacturing industry, working with Kongsberg became a natural choice because we knew them well as a customer. There was an interest on the part of Kongsberg to do manufacturing in Australia. And so, you know, there was very much a shared interest which is why we're really pleased that we've been able to now choose Kongsberg as one of three strategic partners that we will be working with to develop a Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise in Australia, which will see Kongsberg manufacture both the NSM and the JSM in Australia going forward. It's very exciting. And I think that the point I was making before is that Kongsberg is what's kind of opened the door, but the door that's been opened is actually to a much closer strategic relationship with Norway. I mean, we're two countries on opposite sides of the world who've not had a lot to do with each other, but obviously there's a high level of comfort and trust that we both have in each other and in a way, having opened the door, we see that we have many shared challenges, much in common. We operate a lot of the same platforms ourselves, we're both F-35 countries, for example, we operate P-8s, use these missiles. And so there's real opportunity, I think, for the two countries to work much more closely together and we're very excited about that.