The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across Australia’s immediate region is still unfolding. This guide represents a snapshot of the situation as at early June 2020.

This briefing paper discusses the need to rebuild disrupted global supply chains, restore strained institutions of global governance, and uphold a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific in the post-COVID-19 order.

The Australian government’s Partnerships for Recovery policy presents Australia’s priorities in working globally, and especially with our near neighbours, to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This analysis has been prepared for CEDA by Gary Sampson, Professor of International Trade at Melbourne Business School. It addresses the challenges facing world trade following the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is growing agreement between Australia, India, Japan and the United States that as China rises in Asia, the rules-based order needs strengthening and defending; but does the revived Security Quadrilateral Dialogue have any real prospect of rebalancing relationships in the region? Lavina Lee explains.