Opening remarks - Honiara, Solomon Islands

MATTHEW WALE, PRIME MINISTER OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS: Prime Minister, welcome, and the honorary Minister and your esteemed delegation. We are extremely pleased so soon after I visited that you were able to come, and of course, we are hoping you'll come again before the year is out. We have much to transact, so we look forward to great conversations going forward. Thank you.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Thank you very much, Prime Minister to you and your delegation. This visit came, of course, out of a dinner that we had at The Lodge. You spoke about your national day, I said I'll try to come, and here we are with the delegation. So it is very good to be here, as well as the first international visitor under your prime ministership. We were honoured that you came to Australia as your first overseas visit, so it's appropriate that these arrangements be reciprocated as an act of friendship. We've already had a very constructive one-on-one discussion. There's much more that we need to do together. The development of a comprehensive treaty, we will task our ministers to continue to do work on that, and hopefully to conclude that by the end of the year. But we thank you very much for the warm welcome here in the Solomon Islands. This is my second visit, but my first bilateral visit. So I'm very honoured to be told as well, that I would be the first international guest to speak at your national day commemorations, so on behalf of Australia, we thank you for that honour.