COVID-19 cases in Australia on 23 March 2020 (lockdown day): 1709
Total cases in Australia as of 14 December 2020: 28,048
Cases in the United States on 23 March 2020: 35,206
Total cases in the United States as of 14 December 2020: 16,518,420

Number of entities on Australia’s foreign influence register: 153
Proportion …

The pandemic may have provided a diversion from other foreign affairs issues in 2020, but with a new US administration and the China–Australia relationship in a downward spiral, Australia will face five big challenges in 2021.

The China question

In 2020, Australia’s relationship with its …

The major economies of the G20 sought to reassert their global influence on Sunday by agreeing to cooperate on COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the reinvigoration of the world trading system and debt relief for poor countries.

While Scott Morrison joined other G20 leaders in supporting the proposed measures, Australia has already taken targeted …

On Tuesday, Scott Morrison and Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga reached an in-principle agreement on a Japan–Australia defence pact, which will allow closer military cooperation on exercises and shared use of resources, including bases and fuel.

The agreement came as Morrison made his first overseas trip since the outbreak of the …

Asia’s summit season starts this week amid some likely distraction in regional diplomatic circles caused by the US presidential election.

As the summits are being held online due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, officials have had greater access to each other to prepare for the summits. On the other hand, leaders won’t have the …

Counting is underway in the United States election, but the result is currently too close to call.

If Joe Biden wins, the result will be greeted by the country’s allies, Australia included, as a return to normality after four tumultuous years with Donald Trump as president. 

As a longstanding moderate Democrat, former chair of the …

The US presidential election next Tuesday is seen by many Americans as the most consequential in living memory. It will determine how the country responds to its current health and economic crises, and whether Donald Trump’s populism and “America First” world view are aberrations or new norms.

But the election may be almost as important …

Jacinda Ardern won a strong majority in New Zealand’s election on Saturday and can now choose to run the country without making concessions to a coalition partner.

After receiving acclaim for her handling of a series of crises in her first term, she faces a different test: leading the country out of a COVID-19 recession that is deeper than …

The Morrison government increased development aid funding by about 4 per cent in the federal budget delivered last week. 

The government plans to spend an extra A$304.7 million over two years in Timor-Leste and the South Pacific to help with the coronavirus recovery. An extra A$23.2 million will be spent over three years to assist with the …

Foreign ministers from Australia, the United States, Japan and India met in Tokyo on Tuesday for what was only the second formal ministerial meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

The Quad started in 2007 as a low-profile gathering of officials from the Indo-Pacific’s four largest democracies, but was moribund in less than a year …