Australian officials have joined international partners in staging a virtual boycott of Russia during G20 proceedings in Washington.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham says Australian officials joined the walkout by “turning their cameras off at the right time”.
“Obviously you can’t get up and walk out of the meeting in that context, but they removed themselves from participation in the meeting during the Russian engagement,” Senator Birmingham told the ABC.
“Australia continues to work as closely as we can during this election period with all of our international partners to put as much pressure on Russia as possible.”
Senator Birmingham says the government continues to ensure promised military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine is delivered.
Australia has also joined Five Eyes cybersecurity partners – including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand – to warn about the potential of increased Russian cyber attacks against critical infrastructure.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre issued a joint cybersecurity advisory on Russian state-sponsored and criminal cyber threats.
Head of the ACSC Abigail Bradshaw says intelligence and historic instances of destructive cyber attacks means organisations need to take urgent action to improve their security.
“In particular, critical infrastructure organisations should act now to raise defences, not wait until being attacked,” Ms Bradshaw said in the joint statement.
“The ACSC stands ready to support its critical infrastructure partners in responding to the threats we face – by raising their awareness of the threat, sharing indicators of compromise, and providing technical mitigation advice.”
with Reuters
