Australia’s prime minister said the global competition between China and the United States was presenting new challenges for nation states in the Indo-Pacific, and “our preference is not to be forced into binary choices”. Australia’s prime minister welcomed the economic rise of China as good for the global economy saying Australia had “never been in the economic containment camp on China”. The British prime minister Boris Johnson addressed the forum before Morrison. The Australian prime minister praised Johnson for his generous remarks when conferring the Grotius prize, and for his “many enthusiasms”. The Australian prime minister emphasised this was a moment in history “for concerted leadership and action by like-minded liberal democracies”.

Source: The Guardian November 23, 2020 09:00 UTC