Albanese and Wong Address Optus Outage Amid Strengthened Bilateral Ties

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the deadly Singtel-owned Optus emergency call outage during a bilateral meeting with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong in Canberra. The recent outages of Australia's '000' emergency number have drawn intense scrutiny to Optus, the second-largest telecom operator in the country.

Albanese expressed his gratitude to Wong for his condolences to the affected families and support for rigorous follow-up measures. Wong, acknowledging the public's outrage, assured complete cooperation with Australian regulations and the ongoing inquiry. Calls for Optus CEO Stephen Rue's resignation and a revocation of Optus's operating license have surfaced amid public discontent.

In addition to the outage issue, the meeting resulted in an agreement to deepen defense ties between Australia and Singapore. This will include reciprocal access to military facilities and a commitment to broaden cooperation in trade and investment to bolster both economies, according to a joint statement from the leaders.

(With inputs from agencies.)