Dinner in honour of HRH The Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Government House

[E&OE]

This is Ngunnawal Country. Today we are all meeting together on this Ngunnawal Country. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Elders.

Your Royal Highness, it is a great honour and privilege for Linda and me to host you and Prince Daniel at Government House this evening.

Your visit to our country is an important sign of the strength of the relationship between our nations and the potential for its future growth.

We hope this evening provides a relaxed and enjoyable setting for us to further enhance that bond.

Before I begin my more formal remarks, I understand you are both keen walkers. You have been to Namadgi. I hope that experience has inspired you to come back again, spend a longer time there, and discover Kangaroos that are not behind fences!

Your Royal Highness, welcome back to our shores.

I understand this is your second visit and comes more than 55 years since your Father, His Majesty, first visited Australia while Crown Prince and serving as a cadet on the Swedish naval training ship Älvsnabben in 1967.

The years that have passed since that first visit highlight His Majesty’s and Queen Silvia’s sustained, selfless service to the people of Sweden.

All Australians wish His Majesty, your family and the people of Sweden, the very best in his 50th Jubilee year.

Through Daniel Solander’s remarkable work on HMS Endeavour, Sweden has been represented in Australia since the beginning of our colonial period and beyond.

Sweden, today, is a valued partner of Australia.

Our longstanding friendship is underpinned by shared values, mutual respect and strong people-to-people links. 

In our own case, we have very close friends in Uppsala — where you completed your tertiary studies — who we have visited on numerous occasions. We have fond memories of Dalarna, Vaxholm, Visby and of course Stockholm. And we discovered Fika!

We are contributing to each other’s post-COVID recovery and green transition through trade and investment, research and development. 

We cooperate on critical technology, connectivity and health security industries.

We have shared ambitions addressing the challenges of climate change — and I acknowledge the global leadership that you, Your Royal Highness, have provided on environmental and sustainability issues — and a mutual, unshakable commitment to democracy and the rule of law.

The Australian Government has made it clear it wants to work with like-minded, technologically capable partners such as Sweden. 

Our ties continue to grow and I am confident that your visit to Australia will help create new opportunities for cooperation.

I also want to acknowledge Sweden’s current presidency of the European Union and important leadership role in EU affairs in the Indo-Pacific.

The Indo-Pacific region is crucial to our own and the world’s future economic prosperity and security. We must nurture and deepen all connections to the region.

Australia welcomes Sweden’s ongoing contribution.

Your Royal Highness, our bilateral partnership continues to provide a platform for elevated cooperation, consultation and friendship between our two nations.

Let us work together with the common goal of building a world that is secure, stable and prosperous.

[Ends]