PRIME MINISTER:
Well thank you very much Captain.
Mr. President welcome to Garden Island, for more than a century this has been the home of the Royal Australian Navy and as the captain has described we are here on HMAS Canberra our Navy's flagship.
It is the third HMAS Canberra that has served our nation.
The first was sunk at the Battle of Savo Island in the Second World War.
The second enforced United Nations sanctions in the Red Sea in the early 1990s against Iraq before deploying again to the Persian Gulf a decade later.
And in its short life this ship and its crew have already provided vital humanitarian support, as we were discussing with the defence minister, to the people of Fiji after Cyclone Winston.
So, it's a great privilege to welcome you here at a place of such strategic importance at a time that calls for true leadership in the name of security and in the cause of the security and prosperity of our two nations.
Mr. President last week, while I visited the battlefields of the Somme with your Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, you were addressing the United States Congress and you spoke with clarity and wisdom on the challenges of our time.
You were, you said, responding to the call of history you warned of the perils of isolationism, withdrawal and nationalism. You called for a new breed of multi-lateralism a strong multi-lateralism.
Mr. President we understand that call and we share a commitment to build a global consensus to address the challenges of our time. Our world does face a rising tide of anti-democratic populism. Protectionism, authoritarianism is eroding the foundations or has the risk of eroding the foundations of prosperity and security.
You spoke very wisely Mr. President to the European Parliament a fortnight earlier. You said faced with the authoritarianism which surrounds us on all sides the answer must not be authoritarian democracy but the authority of democracy.
To meet the challenges of our times, the threat to openness, to freedom and to individual humanity, democracies must rediscover the power and the purpose of the ideas that have made and continue to make us who we are. Values, principles and institutions that have built and protected the rules-based order of which we spoke earlier today at Kirribilli House.
We know this very well in Australia, our country like yours has a proud history as a participant, not a passenger in world events. A force for good.
We were a founding member of the United Nations. We played an important role in drafting the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We're strong and consistent advocates for global trade. We fostered the birth of new democracies and when the world has been threatened by extremism. We have acted.
Australians always stand up for what is right. We have a global outlook and we firmly share your view that closing the door to the world will not, in your words, stop its evolution.
And that was my message as I travelled across the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and France last week. And it's that reason Mr. President we support your efforts to promote a strong multi-lateralism.
Be it in Syria in response to the chemical weapons attacks in Iran and the case against nuclear weapons or in the domain of free and open trade. You're driving France's place in the world as a global leader with an ambitious policy agenda and in this real world with all its challenges threats and opportunities these noble principles must be backed by strength and sovereignty.
Modern economic and security challenges must be a shared global responsibility. But this begins with sovereignty. Sovereignty to take decisions that safeguard our own security and prosperity because the stronger we are at home the more we can contribute globally.
And that's why we're embarking on one of the greatest engineering projects in our nation's history. Rebuilding and equipping our navy with new patrol vessels, frigates, destroyers and with the help of France, submarines.
This program represents a huge leap forward in the strategic partnership between France and Australia. It increases the exchange of technology and skills between our nations, it creates economic opportunities and jobs in both countries and it bolsters a partnership that will last for generations.
Mr. President together we're facing the challenges of the future. We're acting to protect and preserve the global order that has delivered and secured our peace and prosperity and we're strengthening the deep bonds between France and Australia. It is my great pleasure now to invite you President Macron to address us.
[ENDS]