Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for his question. The Prime Minister and I have announced that two Russian diplomats will be expelled from Australia. This follows action that I took earlier today in making a determination pursuant to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of persona non grata against two Russian diplomats who are working as undeclared intelligence officers in Australia. The Russian ambassador was advised that they have seven days to leave the country.

This is not a decision that we take lightly, but Australia stands in solidarity with the United Kingdom and with the 23 other countries that have also expelled Russian diplomats in expressing our outrage at the deployment of a Russian military-grade nerve agent in an attempted assassination in the United Kingdom, an attempted assassination that, in fact, could have affected the lives of hundreds of other people. This is a serious breach of the international rules based order. In fact, it is the first time that a chemical agent has been deployed offensively in Europe since the Second World War.

Russia is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and as such has a special particular responsibility to uphold global peace and security. Australia condemns the use of chemical weapons anywhere, anytime. In fact, the last occasion that diplomats were expelled from Australia was in 2012 when the Australian government expelled two Syrian diplomats in relation to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Australia is a member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and we are the permanent chair of the Australia Group—that's 43 nations that work to prevent the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. In those capacities as well, Australia must take action, for this act was intolerable. I remain in direct communication with the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, and we will continue to work with the United Kingdom and other countries in condemning this act, which is a blatant breach of the international rules based order and is an affront to our collective humanity.

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