Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has met US President Joe Biden for the first time, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in England.
It wasn’t a one-on-one encounter, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joining them for a 40 minute-long discussion.
“It was a meeting of friends and allies, who share a view on the world,” said Mr Morrison.
“It was a great opportunity for my first meeting with the president, I’ve known Boris for many years, and there was a very easy understanding amongst the three of us.”
Australia was invited to be a guest nation at the three-day summit in Cornwall, allowing Mr Morrison to participate in several sessions with G7 leaders.
He joined them to discuss health issues on Saturday in the UK coastal resort of Carbis Bay, with talks focused on the recovery from the pandemic and how the world can be better prepared for an outbreak of other diseases.
The final summit communique is likely to call for a fresh World Health Organisation investigation into the origins of COVID-19, and Mr Morrison said a thorough probe was necessary to avoid a repeat in future.
The Australian government's strong support for an investigation has angered officials in Beijing and further damaged strained relations with China, where the World Health Organisation says the virus was first detected in late 2019.
"The purpose of these inquiries is to understand - it's got nothing to do with politics or blame or anything else - it is about understanding it," Mr Morrison said on Saturday.
Boris Johnson takes part in a meeting with leaders from Australia, Germany, South Africa, South Korea, the US, France and Canada in Carbis Bay. Source: AAP, Press Association
"So we all, on a future occasion should it occur, can move quickly and can respond and avoid... the absolute carnage that we've seen from this pandemic to both lives and livelihoods all around the world."
UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, presented the G7 leaders with an outline of how treatments, tests and vaccines could be developed within a 100 days of a new disease being detected.
"What is important in the future is that should there ever be an event, should there ever be a seriously communicable virus or disease that the world acts swiftly," Mr Morrison said after the talks.
"I thought the 100-day plan that was set out today was brilliant."
Earlier, he said more investigations and reforms were necessary to fight potential pandemics.
"The process we called for is not yet done... It is recommending that there be further powers for WHO officers to be able to identify these things early and to ensure that that information is reliably passed on in a timely way."
His comments were echoed by WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who told a G7 media briefing after the session that "we will need co-operation from the Chinese side".
He added: "We need transparency in order to find the origin of this virus".
G7 host Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie formally welcomed Mr Morrison to summit on Saturday afternoon, greeting each other with elbow and lower arm taps.
"Australians are always at home on a beach," Mr Morrison said as he approached his counterpart on the boardwalk at St Ives.
"Bondi, eat your heart out," Mr Johnson replied.
Mr Morrison posed alongside fellow summit attendees for the official G7 group photo shortly before 8pm on Saturday (5am AEST on Sunday), standing next to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Mr Morrison also held talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier in the day.
With reporting by Ben Lewis.
