International relations

Australia and Lao PDR held the 7th bilateral Human Rights Dialogue on 9 December 2021 by videoconference.  

Australia will supply $580 million in financing to support the repair and upgrade of several key ports in Papua New Guinea, many of which are nearing the end of their service life.

On 21 January 2022, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Senator the Hon Marise Payne and Minister for Defence the Hon Peter Dutton MP hosted the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP and Secretary of State for Defence the Rt Hon Ben Wallace MP for the Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN).

Viet Nam and Australia held their 17th Annual Human Rights Dialogue on 8 December 2021 by videoconference. The discussion was productive, frank and covered an extensive range of issues.

Australia implements UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 2615 of 22 December establishing a humanitarian exemption to the UNSC sanctions regime in relation to the Taliban.

The Australia Pacific Climate Partnership (the Partnership) is a four year (2018-19/2021-22) regional program. It seeks to strengthen the climate and disaster resilience of Pacific peoples, and has the following intended end of program outcomes:

We deplore the decisions by two Russian courts to forcibly close International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center. For more than three decades, Memorial has fulfilled a unique role in documenting historical crimes and recovering for posterity the memory of the tens of millions of victims of political repression in the country.

Australia will provide $5 million in emergency relief to help the people of the Philippines recover from the devastation caused by Super Typhoon Rai, known locally as Typhoon Odette.

Today we are pleased to announce the appointments of the inaugural Director and Associate Director to the Pacific Fusion Centre.

The Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) came into force on 21 December 2021, following the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Magnitsky-style and Other Thematic Sanctions) Act 2021 commencing on 8 December 2021.