• The Australia-UK Ministerial Dialogue (AUKMIN) reflects the close and dynamic contemporary relationship, the shared perspectives, and the aligned security interests of the United Kingdom and Australia.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Defence Minister John Hutton, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith, and Australian Minister for Defence Joel Fitzgibbon, met in Leeds on 28 November 2008 for the second Australia-UK Ministerial Dialogue.

The four Ministers discussed a number of shared global and regional challenges and how the United Kingdom and Australia can work together effectively to meet them.  

Military co-operation in Afghanistan was high on the agenda at the AUKMIN event in Leeds, while both governments reflected on the on-going situation in Mumbai to re-iterate the need for collaboration on counter-terrorism.

The two Defence Ministers John Hutton and Joel Fitzgibbon underlined both countries’ commitment to further strengthening UK-Australia Defence Cooperation by establishing annual senior-level policy talks.

All four Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the importance and relevance of the UK-Australia relationship.