Frydenberg in Israel
Josh Frydenberg, Minister for the Environment and Energy, was in Israel on a visit to make progress on issues discussed during Benjamin Netanyahu’s February trip to Australia.
JOSH Frydenberg ended this week’s visit to Israel on a high, with a standing ovation at a business lunch in Tel Aviv.
“At the end of the day the economics is one thing but the friendship is always much more important,” he told Australian and Israeli business leaders.
Frydenberg, Minister for the Environment and Energy, was in Israel on a visit arranged by the Australian government to make progress on issues discussed during Benjamin Netanyahu’s February trip to Australia.
But it was a trip that went beyond bilateral relations and trade ties, as it covered the emotional highs of Anzac Day, which he marked at a Jerusalem ceremony and Yom Hashoah, which he commemorated at Israel’s national ceremony at Yad Vashem.
Talking to The AJN about the Yad Vashem event, he noted that he comes from a family of Holocaust survivors, and he said: “The message that resonated with me was from political leaders who said never again and that Israel needs to be strong.”
During his four-day visit Frydenberg signed a joint declaration of intent on environmental cooperation with Israel’s Environment Minister Ze’ev Elkin, and went to see some specific Israeli innovations that he hopes will inspire progress in Australia.
He was wowed by the Megalim Solar Thermal Power Station in the Negev desert – which will be one of the largest projects of its type in the world when completed, and which he hopes will serve as a model for a similar project in Australia.
Asked to sum up his encounters with Israeli innovation, he said that Australia is especially interested in cyber security, wave technology, and drone technology.
He was excited by companies in clean-tech, and said: “I feel the vitality and the optimism. It’s very clear that companies in Israel in the clean technology sphere are making major inroads to international markets.”
Frydenberg visited various companies and held talks about how to increase the flow of Israeli technology to Australia.
He described the opportunity to learn from Israeli innovators, including those who honed their skills in the Israeli Intelligence Corps, as “enormous.”
And he suggested that the Netanyahu visit is jump starting greater trade ties, saying: “Our two way trade is too small at $1.1 billion, but I’m pleased to say that will change in the months and years ahead.”
Yet as he brought his trip to a close at the business lunch, he was focused less on economic targets and more on “friendship.”
Addressing the Israelis in the audience he said: “We were with you 100 years ago around the anniversary we commemorate today with Anzac Day, we were with you during the Shoah and I was at Yad Vashem just a couple of days ago, we are with you today at the United Nations, we are with you today on the border with Sinai and Syria [where Australia has peacekeepers] and we will be with you for a long time to come.
“It’s my great pleasure to be with you here today, to cement the relationship, to take it even stronger for the benefit of our two great nations.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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