Honiara
3 June 2019
Thank you Prime Minister (Sogavare). And thank you very much for your welcome and on behalf of our delegation, and my Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Mr Alex Hawke joins me, also on his first visit in this capacity to the Pacific.
To come over to the Solomons is incredibly important given the length of our relationship, and the importance of that relationship.
Can I congratulate you on your election as Prime Minister and can I also congratulate the Solomons on the elections. We were very pleased to play our role, amongst others, in supporting the conduct in those elections, and it would be the first post-RAMSI, and I think it speaks volumes about the track that the Solomons is on and we welcome that.
Our objective as we’ve just discussed, whether it is here in the Solomons or more broadly, is for the peaceful independence and sovereignty of all Pacific Island nations. This is what we celebrate. This is what we wish to continue to encourage and provide whatever humble assistance or support, technical or otherwise, that we can to assist the sovereignty and integrity of all Pacific Islander states, and to address the many challenges that are present in our region.
And for the family relationship, that family relationship is one that truly does seek to protect the independence of each member, regardless of where they exist.
To that end, we’ve together invested a great deal in the stability and peacefulness in the Solomons. And that peace and stability, now gives rise to the opportunities for prosperity in the Solomons.
That is why our program, through the High Commissioner, and the work of that they do here, we very much want to continue to invest in that development of the Solomons and the Solomon’s economy, the living standards here, and education and health services to further build that prosperity.
Over the next decade, we’ll invest particularly a quarter of a billion Australian into infrastructure with more important cooperation, we look forward to those projects we will be able to pursue, and I know there are quite a number we just already discussed. But bringing that prosperity is something that we’re very keen to pursue and grow that relationship a bit further to follow.
So thank you very much for your welcome.
