News, speeches and media

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, has announced the Australia-Japan Foundation grant recipients for 2023-24. The Foundation advances Australia's foreign and trade policy interests with Japan by supporting partnerships in areas of shared interest and increasing Australian engagement with Japan.

Australia notes the results of the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh on 7 January.

On the second anniversary of the closure of Stand News and arrest of its staff, whose prosecution remains ongoing, the members of the Media Freedom Coalition issued the following statement on media freedom in Hong Kong.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has established the Office for First Nations International Engagement to implement the Australian Government's commitment to embed First Nations perspectives into Australia's foreign policy.

Following the final negotiating round of 2023, at the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland, Members of the WTO Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce (JSI) have reached substantial conclusion of a number of global digital trade rules, covering three broad areas of (a) digital trade facilitation; (b) open digital environment; and (c) business and consumer trust. This marks a significant milestone in the JSI, which commenced negotiations in January 2019.

The undersigned condemn Houthi interference with navigational rights and freedoms in the waters around the Arabian Peninsula, particularly the Red Sea. 

The article of 17 December published in the Herald Sun and other News Corp mastheads concerning the Australian High Commission in London contains a number of errors and misrepresentations, which we correct. DFAT has asked the Herald Sun and its partner journals correct the record to reflect the facts provided to it by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 15 December, and to reflect the additional facts DFAT has provided to it below in response to the article.

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom call on Israel to take immediate and concrete steps to tackle record high settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

The Fifth RCEP Joint Committee (RJC) was held in Manila, the Philippines on 29-30 November, co-chaired by Indonesia and Australia.