Australia and Singapore commit to working on 'safe and calibrated' travel bubble - ABC News

Australia and Singapore have vowed to intensify work on a travel bubble, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison declaring he wants the South-East Asian nation to be the next cab off the rank for quarantine-free travel after New Zealand.

Key points:

• The leaders agreed they are still months away from any formal travel bubble announcement
• Neither side has agreed to what standard they would have to meet for travel to restart
• Australia and Singapore released a joint statement calling the two countries "like-minded partners"

But both countries are likely still months away from any sort of announcement, with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong indicating it will only get the green light when a majority of people in both countries are vaccinated.

Mr Morrison met Mr Lee in Singapore on his way to the United Kingdom for meetings with other world leaders at the G7 Plus summit.

Singapore has largely kept the virus under control for the last nine months — despite a small surge in cases in recent weeks — and Australian officials have long suggested it would be a natural choice for the next step in Australia's re-opening.

Mr Lee and Mr Morrison said they would instruct officials to work on harmonising mutual recognition of health and vaccination certificates so normal travel between the two countries could resume smoothly "as soon as possible".

Still, they cautioned that no announcement was imminent.

"There is still some time before we reach that milestone," Mr Morrison said.

Australia will likely re-open to Singapore next, after announcing a travel bubble with New Zealand.(

Reuters: Ministry of Communications and Information/Handout

)

"But there is nothing impeding us from getting on with the job of putting systems in place that will enable such a bubble to emerge."

Mr Lee said the travel bubble would be opened in a "safe and calibrated manner" and only "when both sides are ready."

"We need to resume these people to people flows to maintain our close and excellent bilateral relationship," Mr Lee said.

"We need to prepare the infrastructure and processes to get ready to do this."

Neither country has yet made any decisions about exactly what benchmarks would have to be met before opening the travel bubble.

But Mr Lee said vaccination and transmission rates would be "part of the consideration".

He did not criticise Australia's vaccine rollout, calling it "steady".

But he nonetheless indicated far more Australians would have to get COVID-19 vaccines before Singapore would agree to push ahead.

"Once the majority of the population is vaccinated it becomes much easier for us to contemplate these openings up," Mr Lee said.

Leaders discuss military cooperation, international students

More than 5.4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have now been administered in Australia, but it will be months before most Australians are fully vaccinated.

Singapore has now administered 4.3 million doses, and almost two million people – out of an adult population of approximately 4.7 million — have now received the full two doses.

Both leaders said Singaporean students who want to resume study in Australia would be given first priority when the travel bubble opened up – possibly as part of a pilot program.

Singapore has largely managed to control the spread of COVID-19.(

Reuters: Edgar Su

)

The prime ministers also discussed military cooperation, collaboration on climate change, financial technology and the military coup in Myanmar.

Both warmly praised the bilateral relationship, and issued a joint statement calling Australia and Singapore "like-minded partners with a high degree of strategic trust."

Mr Lee has repeatedly urged the United States and China to de-escalate tensions, and has pleaded with both great powers not to force South-East Asian nations to choose between them.

When reporters asked him about Australia's fraught relationship with China, he said all countries had to try and identify opportunities to work with Beijing.

"There were will be some rough spots and not (just) a few. And you have to deal with them," he said.

"But deal with them as issues in a partnership you want to keep going, not issues which add up to an adversary which you are trying to suppress."

"You don't have to become like them, neither can you hope to make them become like you. And you have to be able to work on that basis."

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2021-06-10 14:33:05Z
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