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Importance of international relationships

19 Jun 2018

Q. How important is it for Australia to have a close relationship with the following nations?

  Very import-ant Quite import-ant Not very import-ant Don’t know   Very impor-tant

Mar 11

Very import-ant

Nov 13

Very import-ant

Oct 14

Very import-ant

May 15

Very import-ant

Jul 16

Very import-ant

Mar 17

Change
United States 50% 38% 5% 6% 60% 59% 53% 44% 49% 47% +3
United Kingdom 47% 39% 8% 6% 56% 48% 48% 39% 41% 47%
China 39% 44% 10% 7% 48% 54% 44% 39% 42% 43% -4
Japan 30% 49% 12% 8% 39% 35% 31% 31% 25% 30%
Canada 24% 45% 22% 10% na na 26% 24% 22% 25% -1
Indonesia 23% 46% 21% 10% 31% 40% 32% 21% 26% 25% -2
Germany 16% 46% 26% 11% 23% 20% 22% 20% 19% 20% -4
India 19% 45% 26% 10% 26% 26% 22% 22% 19% 17% +2
Russia 17% 39% 33% 12% na na 16% 13% 17% 17%
Saudi Arabia 14% 35% 36% 15% na na 17% 14% 13% 13% +1

50% of respondents think it is very important to have a close relationship with the United States and 47% think it is very important to have a close relationship with the United Kingdom and 39% with China. Relations with Russia (17%) and Saudi Arabia (14%) were thought to be the least important.

A close relationship with the United States is considered very important by 66% of Liberal/National voters, 44% of Labor voters and 37% of Greens voters.

Since this question was asked in March last year, the importance of our relationship with the United States has increased 3% and the importance of our relationships with China and Germany declined by 4%.

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