Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned "powerful actors" in Australia's region are looking for signs of weakness in the response of democratic nations to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
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Mr Morrison also used a speech in a Lowy Institute event on Monday to challenge China to join other countries in condemning the aggression and imposing sanctions on Russia.
The Prime Minister said no other nation would have a greater impact at this point than China in changing Russia's behaviour.
Mr Morrison said a new "arc of autocracy" was aligning to challenge and reset the international order.
"Australia faces its most difficult and most dangerous security environment in 80 years," he said.
"We know there are powerful actors in our region who are watching closely, looking for signs of weakness and division within the West."
The Russian invasion of Ukraine presented China with a choice between paths of peace or violence, Mr Morrison said.
China had repeatedly stated its commitment to peace, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its intention to play a positive role internationally, he said.
"It's now up to China and their leaders at this hinge point of history to demonstrate that these are more than just words.
"But I fear the early signs are not good, as following the Xi-Putin meeting in Beijing at the Olympics that preceded the invasion, the Chinese government has acted to throw Putin's Russia an economic lifeline, relaxing trade restrictions on Russian wheat."
China had also used language pretending to an equivalence of interests between Russia and Ukraine, and a legitimate cause for Russia to invade Ukraine, Mr Morrison said.
"No country would have a greater impact right now on Russia's violent aggression towards Ukraine than China joining the rest of the world in denouncing Russia's aggression, and applying the same sanctions we have," he said.
"So far, they have not."
Mr Morrison said he was not confident at this point that Ukraine would emerge from the conflict a sovereign, independent and whole nation, but that Vladimir Putin could not be confident either that he would easily take control of the country.
Russia's capability had been overestimated both inside and outside the country, and other autocratic regimes would have to take note, he said.
"That forces a recalibration of what some people think they can do. It might look all good on paper, it might look like what can be achieved from what the generals and others tell you, but few strategies survive contact with the enemy.
"That has been lived out in a very candid way in Ukraine."
Mr Morrison predicted Russia's military would face a growing resistance within Ukraine and would find it hard to hold any gains.
"This all goes to our view about what our response should be, and that is impose the heaviest possible price for as long as possible to deter any other autocrat from thinking they can go down a similar path, and it can be done easily or quickly."
International institutions 'opened the door' to threat
Mr Morrison said the invasion of Ukraine had been a major wake-up call for Europe. He welcomed the signs of a tougher approach to "autocratic adventurism", including Germany's increased defence spending and decision to supply lethal aid to Ukraine.
"Well-motivated, altruistic" international institutions had not only failed to change autocratic regimes by encouraging engagement with their nations, but had unwittingly opened the door to their acts of coercion and intimidation.
"We face the spectre of a transactional world, devoid of principle, accountability and transparency. Where state sovereignty and territorial integrity and liberty are surrendered for respite from coercion and intimidation, or economic entrapment dressed up as economic reward," he said.
"This is not a world we want for us, our neighbours or our region, and it's certainly not a world we want for our children."
Mr Morrison in 2019 warned of "negative globalism" and raised concerns about international institutions becoming too powerful.
Asked whether the world response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine showed the value of international institutions, the Prime Minister said their mobilisation against the aggression showed "positive globalism".
"We have been working hand in glove with many other like-minded countries to ensure that international institutions are not being hollowed out, and hollowed out in plain sight by some who would seek to take them in different directions," Mr Morrison said.
"It is right and good that we would want international institutions to work with member states to try and deal with the big economic and environmental challenges that we face.
"This is a good thing, but by the very open nature of that process, we have become exposed to interference, to subversion, to a range of other things which can take that agenda off track."
Submarine decision not before election
Mr Morrison said the government did not expect to decide on which nuclear submarine design it would choose before the election, expected in May.
"We don't, and no one should expect it to. It won't be done in that timeframe," he said.
"That would involve a whole another process, particularly during a caretaker period leading up to the election."
The Prime Minister's comments hosed down Defence Minister Peter Dutton's announcement on Sunday that the design of the submarines was to be made "within the next couple of months," just in time for the federal election.
Mr Morrison also made an announcement, flagged earlier on Monday, that $10 billion would be spent building a new submarine base on Australia's east coast to support future nuclear-powered submarines.
The plan for a new submarine base comes as a support to the deal announced last September with allies the United Kingdom and United States which led to the dumping of a $90 billion submarine contract with France.
It would strategically place a nuclear submarine base on either side of Australia, servicing the Pacific Ocean with the new base and the Indian Ocean HMAS Stirling (Fleet Base West) in Western Australia which has been home to the Collins Class submarines.
Three preferred locations on the east coast identified by Defence are Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla.
An optimal east coast base would provide home-ported submarines with specialised wharves, maintenance facilities, administrative and logistics support, personnel amenities, and suitable accommodation for submarine crews and support staff. It would also enable the regular visiting of US and UK nuclear-powered submarines.
Mr Morrison says the new base, as proposed, would add defence capacity to the Collins-class fleet based at HMAS Stirling (Fleet Base West) in Western Australia.
The government says the base does not relocate any existing or planned future capacity for Fleet Base West and it will remain home to current and future submarines.
Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla have been pinpointed as close to sufficient industrial infrastructure, close to large population centres for workforce needs and reasonably close to primary maritime training and operational areas; to deep water; and to weapons storage and loading facilities.
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Defence has been authorised to immediately engage with the NSW and Queensland governments as well as relevant local governments and authorities to begin negotiations.
Describing it as an "enormous undertaking," Mr Morrison says the initial work is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday said Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines was the worst thing the country could do in the face of rising global tensions.
He said acquiring the submarines as part of the AUKUS deal was an "abandonment of sovereignty" and would undermine Australia's national security, especially after growing instability in Europe.
"It's going to result in us having nuclear submarines, if it ever comes to pass, that we not only can't build, can't maintain and will not be able to operate on our own," he told ABC Radio on Monday.
"It's exactly the worst thing that we should be doing in the face of the threats we face."
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said the Prime Minister's submarine base announcement was "really an announcement about an announcement".
"It's an announcement that says some way down the track, well after the next election, there'll be an announcement about location," he told ABC Adelaide.
"What we actually need is announcements that lead to actual infrastructure and announcements that lead to actual defence materiel being realised."
Meanwhile, Mr Morrison spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky about the conflict in Ukraine on Saturday.
Russian forces that seized Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have now placed staff running the facility under their command and restricted communications with the outside world, the United Nations nuclear watchdog says.
The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine passed 1.5 million as Russia's attack continued for an 11th day and the US said it was concerned civilians were being targeted.
A second attempt to establish a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol has failed.
Ukrainians fleeing the town of Irpin just outside Kyiv were caught in shelling by Russian forces and forced to dive for cover, Reuters witnesses said.
- with AAP
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