Overview
- In a major Atlantic Council speech on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the post‑1945 international order inadequate and called for middle powers to help design its successor.
- Albanese said Australia will keep the US alliance as the security anchor while engaging China in the national interest and pushing for rules that protect trade, sovereignty and small states.
- He framed resilience as a priority, saying governments must strengthen sovereign capabilities and cooperate on economic security, critical supply chains and energy to withstand shocks.
- Albanese met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and signed a decade‑long bilateral security agreement on Wednesday, and he announced an additional $60 million in assistance to Ukraine.
- His push for middle‑power coordination faces friction from the United States, which publicly rejected UN AI regulation proposals and whose embassy criticised Australia’s planned social‑media algorithm reforms as facilitating censorship.