Australia remains open to further requests for support from Ukraine as the nation faces an illegal and immoral attack, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.
Mr Albanese discussed the Russian invasion with US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
They were attending the second in-person Quad leaders’ meeting, which Australia will host in 2023.
Mr Albanese said he had expressed Australia’s view that the Russian “unilateral, illegal, immoral attack” on the people of Ukraine is an “outrage”.
“The atrocities which are being committed on innocent civilians is something that we couldn’t have expected in the 21st century,” he told reporters after the meeting.
He said Labor had supported all of the Morrison government’s commitments to Ukraine.
“And we remain open to any further suggestions of support,” he said.
“This is something that Russia must pay a price for its actions. It’s as simple as that.”
Mr Biden told the summit in his opening remarks the world was “navigating a dark hour in our shared history”.
“This is more than just a European issue, this is a global issue,” he said.
“It appears to me that Putin is just trying to extinguish a culture – he’s not even aiming at military targets anymore. He’s taking out every school, every church, every natural history museum, as if to try to obliterate the Ukrainian culture.
“And the world has to deal with it and we are.”
He said one terrible offshoot of the war was a global food crisis made worse by Russia blocking Ukraine from exporting grain.
During a sideline bilateral meeting, Mr Albanese and President Biden discussed the ramifications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine amid fears such a move could embolden China, especially in relation to Taiwan.
“(President Biden) commended Australia’s strong support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, and the leaders agreed on the importance of continued solidarity, including to ensure that no such event is ever repeated in the Indo-Pacific,” a readout of the discussion states.
Host leader Mr Kishida earlier told reporters the Quad leaders’ summit had been a candid discussion on Ukraine.
“And we, including India, expressed our concern over the tragic war in Ukraine, and confirmed that principles such as the rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity should be observed in any region,” he said.
India has a long-standing relationship with Russia, which remains a major supplier of its defence equipment and oil supplies, and has been largely taking a neutral position on the war.
Only the US president condemned the Russian invasion in a readout of the bilateral meeting between President Biden and Prime Minister Modi, while the Quad summit’s official five-page communique didn’t refer to Russia.
“We strongly support the principles of freedom, rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty and territorial integrity, peaceful settlement of disputes without resorting to threat or use of force, any unilateral attempt to change the status quo,” the communique said.
“We will continue to act decisively together to advance these principles in the region and beyond.
“We reaffirm our resolve to uphold the international rules-based order where countries are free from all forms of military, economic and political coercion.”
