By Staff Writer
British Foreign Secretary William Hague will host his Australian counterpart
The London Evening Post has learnt that British and Australian Foreign and Defence ministers are expected to meet in London for their annual Australia-UK Ministerial (AUKMIN) meeting this week.
During their meeting, the Foreign Ministers will sign a new Partnership Arrangement to ramp up their development cooperation by, committing to an annual Development Dialogue and intensify collaboration in shared priority areas, including leveraging the private sector and aid for trade, gender equality and women’s empowerment, and humanitarian response.
The Ministers will also sign a Joint Statement on Enhanced Diplomatic Network Cooperation, which will enable diplomatic networks to share best practices and develop new initiatives in areas such as consular crisis training, IT and property cooperation which will provide for efficiencies and cost savings for both countries.
According to the press release from the Foreign and Commonwealth office, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond will meet their Australian equals, Julie Bishop and David Johnston to discuss foreign, defence and security policy challenges and opportunities for further joint cooperation.
In addition, the Ministers will discuss the UN Security Council agenda, challenges around conflict and crisis response in the Asia Pacific region, with particular focus on areas where the two countries can work more closely or share resources and collaborate on defence engagement.
The talks will be crowned by, the official launch of a new dialogue on Asia, involving foreign policy experts from the UK and Australia whose debut meeting will be aimed at promoting common interests in a stable and prosperous region ,is expected to take place at Ditchley Park in June this year.