This week in Australian foreign affairs: Australia hosts bilateral talks with Solomon Islands’ Jeremiah Manele; Julian Assange returns to Australia; first group of Australian submarine workers depart for Pearl Harbor AUKUS training; report on Australia’s progress on tackling slavery released, and more.

This week, on 26 June, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele to Australia to host bilateral talks. This is the first official international visit by Manele since taking office in May 2024. The two leaders discussed “opportunities to further strengthen the bilateral relationship, including through security partnerships, economic development, labour mobility pathways and infrastructure cooperation.” Manele also travelled to Queensland to see how “the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme is delivering economic benefits for both Solomon Islands and Australia and discuss our humanitarian and policing cooperation.” The visit is the second time the leaders have met, following a first at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in November 2023.

Also on 26 June, Albanese joined Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in a media release on the return of Julian Assange to Australia. Assange touched down on Australian soil on Wednesday evening after spending 12 years in the Ecuadorean Embassy, London, and Belmarsh prison. “His return to Australia is possible due to the conclusion of a plea arrangement between Mr Assange and the United States Department of Justice, which was accepted by a United States court in Saipan on Wednesday 26 June.” The statement expressed “appreciation to the United States and the United Kingdom, for their efforts to find a pathway that met the interests of all parties.”

In a statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles on 22 June, the government announced the departure of the first group of Australian submarine workers for Pearl Harbor AUKUS training. “Around 30 skilled ASC Pty Ltd workers are the first to deploy to the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard to directly participate in training in the maintenance of US Virginia class nuclear‑powered submarines alongside their US counterparts,” the statement outlined. The workers comprise of “mechanical fitters and electricians as well as electrical, mechanical and safety engineers and submarine maintenance and battery crew.” More than “100 Australian shipyard workers at ASC are expected to depart by mid-2025 for naval propulsion skilling at Pearl Harbor.” Following overseas training, the statement reads, “they will take up key roles in Western Australia as part of Submarine Rotational Force-West, where they will lead the sustainment of rotating US and UK nuclear-powered submarines. They will also pass on their skills and train other ASC workers through their lead roles.”

On 25 June, Wong joined Dreyfus in the release of a new report on Australia’s progress in tackling modern slavery. According to the report, “Australia is one of just 33 countries to have been ranked as Tier One in the report which finds “the Government of Australia fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” The report highlights the passage of the Albanese Government’s legislation last month establishing Australia’s first Anti-Slavery Commissioner as one of the reasons for the Tier One ranking,” the statement reads. “The Government has committed $8 million over four years in the 2023-24 Budget to support the Commissioner’s establishment and operation.”

In a media release on 23 June, Wong announced the recipients of the Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR) grants program for 2023-24. The grants aims to strengthen collaboration “between Australia and the Middle East and North Africa region by advancing areas of shared political, economic, and social interest and building a greater appreciation of each other’s cultures and values.” $452,000 in funding will be shared across ten projects, and across topic areas of “innovation and sustainability, health and sport, social cohesion and gender equality, and arts and culture.”

Wong joined Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy, and Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts on 22 June to announce additional humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa Region. In Sudan, more than 2 million people have been forced to flee across borders, while more the 7 million have been internally displaced. In Ethiopia, a combination of conflict, droughts, and flooding have caused the displacement of 4.5 million people. Meanwhile, the country also hosts over one million refugees. The new assistance will “address critical needs including healthcare, food and clean water, as well as services for children, separated families and survivors of gender-based violence,” and will be delivered through “Australian and local NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross and UN partners.” The statement announces that $13 million will be deployed to “assist vulnerable people in Sudan and Sudanese refugees displaced to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan; $6 million to Ethiopia and $6 million to Somalia to support people affected by crises; [and] $4 million to Kenya to respond to flooding and address food insecurity.”

Dr Adam Bartley is the managing editor for AIIA’s Australian Outlook and weekly columnist for The Week in Australian Foreign Affairs. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and resident fellow at the Elliot School for International Affairs, the George Washington University. Adam also has positions as post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation RMIT University  and as program manager of the AI Trilateral Experts Group. He can be found on Twitter here.

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