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.

Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper continues to provide the policy framework for the aid program. Australia’s Pacific ‘step-up’, one of the priority initiatives under this framework, gathered momentum in 2018 with a range of new government commitments, including strengthened security cooperation and increased financing for infrastructure.