What does the China-Russia-North Korea axis mean for the Indo-Pacific?

China, Russia and North Korea have significantly deepened strategic ties in recent years. China and North Korea have played significant roles in enabling Russia to prosecute its war on Ukraine, providing direct and indirect military, technological, economic and diplomatic support. Beyond the Ukraine war, the three countries share a common resistance to the US-led world order, promoting their own diplomatic groupings and alternative vision for a multipolar order.

For some, this represents a deep and enduring ideological and strategic challenge to a fracturing Western-led global order and portends a greater likelihood of conflict in the Indo-Pacific. Others are less convinced that a China-Russia-North Korea axis can or will endure beyond the Ukraine war and argue that assessments of the combined threat are overblown.

How should we understand the deepening relations between China, Russia and North Korea? Where is the emerging authoritarian axis likely to produce collective and bilateral strategic effects in Indo-Pacific region? Is there a divergence of views among countries in the region on the significance of the axis? And how should Australia and its partners respond?

Bringing together leading experts from Australia, India, Singapore and the Philippines, we invite you to join a panel discussion unpacking these big questions facing the region. The panel features Hudson Institute Senior Fellow, Dr Aparna Pande, University of the Philippines Professor Herman Joseph Kraft, National University of Singapore Associate Professor, Dr Ja Ian Chong and United States Studies Centre Director of Foreign Policy and Defence Program, Dr Lavina Lee, in conversation with Foreign Affairs and National Security Correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Matthew Knott.