MANILA: US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull held their first formal talks Tuesday, stressing unity in the face of demands for more aggressive action against the Daesh group.

“We have a common purpose and a common strategy,” said Turnbull, as Obama hailed Australia’s role in tackling jihadists who control swathes of Syria and Iraq and carried out deadly attacks in Paris.

“Australia is the second-largest contributor to the counter-ISIL coalition,” Obama said, using another acronym for the group.

Both men, who met on the sidelines of a regional summit in Manila, are under political pressure at home to do more to fight the Daesh.

Turnbull voiced his support for that mission, saying “we will continue shoulder to shoulder with the United States and our allies in the fight against this type of extremist violence, this type of terrorism.”

Turnbull is also facing calls at home to step up the fight.

The predecessor he ousted in September, Tony Abbott, has pointedly called for Australia to consider putting boots on the ground.

The former prime minister’s comments drew a recent sharp rebuke from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

“As Tony Abbott well knows, Australia does not act unilaterally. We need legal basis under international law to send our forces into other countries — for their own protection and because Australia plays by the rules,” she told Sky News.

After their meeting on the margins of an APEC summit, Obama indicated that Turnbull would visit Washington soon.

“I’ve extended an invitation to the prime minister to visit Washington sometime soon, and he’s agreed so we are going to set up a time.”

“Unfortunately it will probably be in the winter, and it will be a little cold, it’s always a little worrisome for folks down under,” Obama joked.