“Russia also continues to score highly for its resilience, a reflection of its relative security in terms of resources, geoeconomics, and geopolitics compared to many countries in Asia, and [that is] a partial explanation for why Russia has been able to weather large-scale international sanctions.”
Meanwhile, Australia slipped from fifth to sixth place despite the Albanese government’s success at striking security treaties with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Nauru.
Australia will need to work harder to maintain its influence in an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape, including by boosting defence spending, the report found.
The authors said: “The slower pace at which Australia is modernising and expanding its armed forces compared to other countries in Asia contributed to its declining score for military capability, with static or negative scores on almost all indicators for this measure.”
Patton said: “Australia is making more ambitious security commitments to the region, but virtually all defence experts agree our own military spending is not commensurate to the nation’s needs.”
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China has benefited from the Trump administration’s punitive tariffs and its lack of interest in Asian diplomacy. It recorded the highest-ever diplomatic influence score of any country.
“The Trump administration’s approach to Asia has been very chaotic. There is no strategy,” Patton said.
Browder, who has been called “Russia’s most wanted man” after being deported from the country in 2005, said ending Putin’s access to oil revenues was “the key to ending the whole war”.
“If we want to stop the war, the easiest way is to stop the Russian oil trade,” said the former hedge fund manager, who has championed the use of Magnitsky-style sanctions to target individual human rights offenders.
Bill Browder says ending the Russian oil trade is the key to ending the war in Ukraine.Credit: Bloomberg
Fortescue Mining founder Andrew Forrest this week urged the Albanese government to take decisive action to stop Russian-origin oil from entering Australia, telling the Herald and The Age’s Blood Oil series: “No family filling their car with petrol should have to wonder whether their money is helping bankroll Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
“This should ring alarm bells across Australia.”
The Morrison government in 2021 introduced Magnitsky sanctions, which are named after Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who accused Kremlin officials of widespread corruption and died in a Russian prison after being held without trial.
Australia banned direct imports of Russian oil when the war in Ukraine broke out, but Russian-origin oil has flowed into Australia after being refined in intermediary countries such as India.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said the government was liaising with the EU and Britain to determine whether it can ensure Russian-origin oil does not enter the Australian market.
Browder said Australia and other nations should ban oil imports from refineries that handle Russian crude.
“This is not complex at all. It’s very straightforward,” Browder said. “We go to the refineries in India, China and Turkey and give them a choice: you can keep buying Russian crude oil, or you can do business with us.”
Commenting on peace negotiations under way in Geneva ahead of a Thursday deadline set by Trump, Browder said: “Putin has no intention of stopping the war. He wants to derail oil sanctions and kick them into the long grass.”
