Prime Minister
PRIME MINISTER: The events in Ukraine continue to be profoundly disturbing. I concur with the statements of so many leaders of free countries around the world that what we are seeing in Ukraine is looking regrettably inevitable. We hope that this is not the case. We hope that Russia will step back from its violent threats of intimidation on its neighbour, Ukraine. But it does appear, particularly in the reports that we've seen, that the likelihood of an invasion of Ukraine by Russia is imminent.
Such threats of violence and intimidation are totally unacceptable. Threats against Ukraine are uninvited, unwelcome, unprovoked and unacceptable, and all free nations of the world will hold that view. I agree with Prime Minister Kishida, who has remarked, importantly, that we don't effectively get to go and change the rules by using threats of violence in order to achieve that, and by seeking to intimidate sovereign nations.
All nations, all nations that favour a world order that that is in favour of freedom support the sovereignty of all nations. And the fact that a nation would seek to threaten another's sovereignty on the pretence that it's being done in their own security interests is completely unacceptable. So there can't be compromises when it comes to the status quo, which actually protects world order and protects freedom and protects the liberty of nations and their sovereignty. These things cannot and should never be allowed to be changed through threats of intimidation and coercion.
Australia has always taken a strong stand against these issues, and we always will. And we'll always be proud to stand with others like the United States and Japan and so many others around the world, our friends in Europe and the United Kingdom, who have been prepared to call this out. Australia's calling it out and we'll provide the support that is necessary to assist, with our like-minded partners, to support those in Ukraine.
For Australians who are in Ukraine, we have been warning now for many, many weeks, going back to well into late last year, but our consular teams and diplomats standing ready in a number of countries that are bordering the affected areas of Ukraine. And we're working with other countries in Europe, and I particularly want to acknowledge the support we've had from France in in these particular efforts. And we will continue to work, whether it's standing by our partners in making these very strong points. I note the Dutch Government have made very strong statements and offers of support. So we'll work with all of them because this cannot stand.
We cannot have a situation where a nation such as Russia can threaten and bully those countries that border its its borders. We cannot have it that they can intimidate and threaten in this way. That is not how we can have a sustainable peace. And no country should be taking any comfort from this whatsoever. They can't. This is not something that we can allow to stand. And Australia will stand with all those who will stand against this violence and this aggression.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, if war does happen, you mentioned support there. What are you talking about there? Would that be a contribution of troops? What sort of support is that? And have you seen the intelligence that Mr Biden has been referring to?
PRIME MINISTER: Well we we participate in an intelligence community together with our allies, our allies, and we're very well-informed of the events that have been taking place in Ukraine and on their border. There hasn't been any withdrawal of of Russian troops from the borders. The pretence is being sought for an invasion. There is no pretence for an invasion into Ukraine. There is no justification for it. There is no provocation of it. Russia has only one decision that it can make, and that is to withdraw, to not proceed with this invasion. To not pretend that there is some justification for it, because there is none. And they cannot use the threat of war and invasion as a way of trying to leverage and negotiate other changes that they may be seeking. That is not how free nations, democratic nations, nations that are in favour of peace should behave. We've seen this before, and we cannot allow it to stand.
Now, Australia has not been asked or nor would we be providing support through troops or anything of that nature. We work with our allies and partners in many other ways, and we will seek to do that in with the practical things that we can do to assist those efforts. Had such discussions with the UK Prime Minister and others about how we proceed along that basis. We stand together in supporting the statements of the President of the United States that we've heard overnight, and I think he sums up the position extremely well.