“I informed him that [the] Bushmaster became the most popular Australian brand in Ukraine,” Kuleba said at a news conference.
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“I asked him to continue supporting Ukraine militarily. I proposed to him a joint effort to help Asian and African countries to mitigate the consequences of the food shortage and famine and I also asked for help in the area of energy and infrastructure.
“Transformers, generators, spare parts for electricity. These are very technical things and they are all of humanitarian purpose.
“He took the list of our energy needs, he promised that he will immediately instruct appropriate members of his government to consider it.”
Appearing alongside Kuleba, Albanese said Ukraine could be “assured Australia’s ongoing support and our admiration for your struggle”.
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“We’re very proud that [the assistance] is making a substantial difference to the defence of your people. The ongoing targeting of civilians by Vladimir Putin’s forces are reprehensible and are against international law.”
Russia’s aggression and its impact on global food and energy security are expected to be dominant themes of the trio of world leaders’ gatherings in South-East Asia in the next week.
A deal in which grain and fertilisers have been exported from Ukraine ports via the Black Sea could expire unless Russia and Ukraine sign off on an extension and Kuleba demanded Moscow cease playing “hunger games” over the agreement.
In a meeting with ASEAN leaders, he also called on South-East Asian countries to refrain from sitting on the fence when it came to the Russian war, saying afterwards “the worst thing that a country can do is nothing”.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top diplomat said his Kremlin counterpart Lavrov had not sought a meeting with him in Phnom Penh, or on the sidelines of the G20.
“If he does we will thoroughly consider his request,” he said. “[But] there is not a single indicator that Russia is sincerely seeking negotiations.
“Sitting down at a table for a nice picture, we’ve been there, we’ve done it, we’ve tried.”
Leaders have flown to Phnom Penh as hundreds of thousands of Cambodians return home after travelling during the country’s annual water festival, Bon Om Touk, one of its biggest holidays of the year.
The US-China rivalry and the ongoing atrocities carried out by the military regime in Myanmar have also been key talking points here.
South-East Asian leaders could not agree on taking stronger action to try to end the violence when they met on Friday despite Indonesia and Malaysia leading a drive for junta representatives to be suspended from all ASEAN meetings.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said here on Saturday ”everybody has failed in relation to Myanmar”.
“The international community as a whole has failed and the UN is part of the international community,” he said.
With Reuters
