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Blinken from Melbourne: Australia showed it was capable of the best of humanity
The Straits Times reported, citing Reuters, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told students in Melbourne that Australia had showed it was capable of the best of humanity, transforming the life of his stepfather who arrived as a teenage refugee after the Holocaust.
Mr Blinken is in Melbourne for the Quad meeting of foreign ministers on Friday (Feb 11), when he will meet counterparts from India, Japan and Australia.
On Thursday morning, he spoke to students at the University of Melbourne, where his late stepfather graduated, after he arrived with no education from Poland.
Mr Blinken said: "Australia remade him," adding that his family held Australia in a special place.
"It showed after a demonstration of how humanity is capable of the worst, it is also capable of the best."
Highlighting the closeness in values between the two nations, he said it was imperative for Australia and the United States to work together to tackle challenges from climate change to the pandemic, and ensuring technology was used to advance humanity.
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"At a time when so many of those values and interests have been challenged, I think there is more of an imperative than ever, that our two countries be together, work together."
The report noted that Mr Blinken flies from Australia flies to Fiji to reassure Pacific island leaders that Washington and its allies are committed to providing security and Covid-19 vaccines, as China steps up its aid and influence in the region.
Source: straitstimes
