World leaders have gathered for high-level talks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York with fighting terrorism a key focus of discussions.
In his inaugural speech to the assembly, Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed Australia's commitment to the coalition fighting the Islamic State militant group.
Mr Abbott has emphasised Australia's role in global affairs, saying Australia would play its part in solving the world's problems, including tackling Islamic State, Russian aggression in Ukraine, Ebola, and economic stagnation.
Mr Abbott said Australia is committed to making the world a better place.
"Under successive governments for more than 100 years, Australia's determination has been to advance our interests, to protect our citizens and to uphold our values," he said.
"We've never believed that we can save the world single handily but nor have we shrunk from shouldering our responsibilities. To us it's all part of being a good global citizen."
Mr Abbott also focused on economic growth ahead of Australia's chairing of the G-20 summit in November.
"Our G20 goal is to boost output by an extra two per cent over the next five years to create millions of jobs and to generate trillions in wealth right around the world."
"Likewise, the post-2015 Development Agenda should also focus on economic growth because growth makes every other social goal, even tackling climate change, easier to accomplish."
The Prime Minister's speech comes a day after he addressed the U-N Security Council on the terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State (IS) group's foreign fighters.
The issue of the threat of IS featured again in his address to the U-N General Assembly as he outlined Australia's military contribution to the Middle East to tackle the jihadists.
"Right now, an Australian force has been deployed to the Middle East so that we might join a coalition to disrupt and degrade the ISIL terrorist movement at the request of the Iraqi government."
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