US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich says he sympathises with Australia’s asylum seeker woes, but in some ways it is a ‘good problem’ to have.
Mr Bleich said the US understood the issues that Australia faced, because it too had problems with asylum seekers while trying to fulfill treaty obligations.
‘I think it’s important for us to recognise that the reason the US and Australia have these particular problems is because we’re open societies,’ he told reporters in Perth on Wednesday.
‘We are desirable countries to come to, so in some ways it’s a good problem to have because it means that we’re the kind of countries that other nations aspire to be.’
Mr Bleich said border protection agencies in the US and Australia had regular discussions about how to enhance their protection.
The nations also talked about combined security measures, although they did not discuss specific incidents such as Tuesday’s incident when 66 Sri Lankan asylum seekers arrived at the busy West Australian port of Geraldton, about 430km north of Perth.
‘We focus on our alliance security,’ Mr Bleich said. (SkyNews)
