The Essential Report Archive Read the latest report

Importance of international relationships

28 Mar 2017

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

Feb 15

Very import-ant

May 15

Very import-ant

Jul 16

Change
United States 47% 40% 8% 6%   60% 59% 53% 44% 44% 49% -2
United Kingdom 47% 41% 6% 6%   56% 48% 48% 38% 39% 41% +6
China 43% 43% 6% 7%   48% 54% 44% 41% 39% 42% +1
Japan 30% 50% 11% 9%   39% 35% 31% 30% 31% 25% +5
Indonesia 25% 46% 19% 9%   31% 40% 32% 22% 21% 26% -1
Canada 25% 49% 17% 9%   na na 26% 22% 24% 22% +3
Germany 20% 49% 21% 10%   23% 20% 22% 18% 20% 19% +1
India 17% 47% 25% 11%   26% 26% 22% 20% 22% 19% -2
Russia 17% 38% 34% 12%   na na 16% 11% 13% 17%
Saudi Arabia 13% 37% 36% 14%   na na 17% 12% 14% 13%

 

47% 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 43% with China. Relations with Russia (17%) and Saudi Arabia (13%) were thought to be the least important.

 

A close relationship with the United States is considered very important by 59% of Liberal/National voters, 45% of Labor voters and 35% of Greens voters.

 

Since this question was asked in July last year, the importance of our relationship with the United Kingdom has increased 6% and the importance of our relationship with Japan increased 5%.

Error: