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AAP
AAP
Politics
Dominic Giannini

Australia-UK FTA due to be legislated

UK High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell has dedicated a tree in honour of Queen Elizabeth. (AAP)

The Australia-Britain Free Trade Agreement is due to be passed through parliament when it resumes, and will likely come into effect by the end of the year or early 2023.

British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell has met with the new trade minister Don Farrell to discuss the deal, which was signed virtually in December.

The commissioner says the process will be concluded when the 47th parliament begins onm July 26.

"The trade deal is done and dusted. It's signed, so it's going through parliamentary processes because free trade agreements are international treaties and have to be legislated," Ms Treadell told AAP.

"That's gone very well so far. We very much look forward to the Free Trade Agreement coming into effect at the end of this year or the beginning of next year."

Ms Treadell also met with Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and is due to meet with other cabinet ministers in the coming weeks.

The Indo-Pacific has been identified as a key area of co-operation as China moves to convince Pacific island nations to sign onto a regional security agreement.

Australia and Britain need to continue to work together and listen to what the island nations need from international partners, the commissioner says.

"We are both close friends, partners and allies of the Pacific island countries," Ms Treadell said.

"Britain has a long history in this part of the world. (We need to) work together to support these island nations, whether (through) humanitarian aid or right through to the current climate agenda," she said.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda at the end of the month will also be an opportunity to outline measures of co-operation in areas like climate change and economic growth.

"A number one agenda item for them will be climate change, will be economic growth and development, and across both those fronts we look forward to working with Australia to support what our Pacific friends are looking for," Ms Treadell said.

It comes as the Australian Strategic Policy Institute called for a hybrid-threats centre for the Indo-Pacific to deal with a mix of military and non-military - as well as overt and covert - threats like cyber attacks, coercive diplomacy, foreign interference and disinformation.

The centre has been modelled on the existing NATO-European Union hybrid centre based in Finland but will need to be moulded to fit the different security and strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific.

The Quad countries - Australia, the United States, Japan and India - would form the core of the centre while additional support would be sought from countries with expertise in the area including the United Kingdom and Europe, according to ASPI's proposal.

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