Talks held in Canberra this week produced a joint communiqué, signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Jordanian king, that endorsed a two-state outcome to the conflict and raised objections to Israel's proposed E1 settlement expansion in the West Bank — a project that multiple international legal bodies have assessed as contrary to international law. Arrangements between the nations expanded to cover joint military training programmes and coordinated action against terrorist threats.
Backing for Jordan's role in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, along with continued support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency — the body responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees — formed part of Australia's stated position. According to a broadcast news outlet's account of the talks, the two countries' foreign ministers took up the matter of humanitarian supplies — among them roughly 900 wheelchairs that have sat at the border crossing for approximately a year — that have not been permitted to move from Jordan into Gaza. Those claims — that aid entering the territory was being blocked, slowed, or held back — are ones Israel has consistently pushed back against.
Ian Parmeter, who previously served as Australia's ambassador to Lebanon, told a broadcast outlet that Jordan holds a notable position among Arab states in the region, maintaining ties with Gulf nations, Egypt, and Western partners. He noted that the country also contends with spillover pressures from Lebanon, including those connected to Hezbollah, given its geographic proximity to both Lebanon and the West Bank, where Palestinians have faced ongoing violence, and that Jordan pursues efforts to foster a more moderate direction within Palestinian political movements.
Among the meeting's political results, a joint statement opposing the E1 settlement project drew attention, though that outcome sat alongside a separate concern — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's reported plan to delay Palestinian Authority elections to September 2027. A joint communiqué issued on Tuesday carried the signatures of Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, with the four nations' foreign ministers expressing the view that the delay risked eroding public confidence in Palestinian democratic institutions.
Palestinians have not gone to the polls for legislative representation since 2006, the year Hamas — an armed political organisation — secured a majority in those parliamentary contests. A split in Palestinian governance took shape after armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah in 2007 ended with Hamas establishing control over Gaza, while the Palestinian Authority — the body that Fatah heads — retained administrative authority over portions of the occupied West Bank, operating out of Ramallah with no reach into the territory Hamas now ran.
At 90 years old, Abbas has held the presidency without interruption since 2005, continuing to govern through executive decree well beyond the point his electoral mandate lapsed in 2009. Citing conditions across Gaza and the West Bank as unsuitable for holding a vote, he described the delay as unavoidable.
For Australia, the postponement carries added weight given that the Albanese government's decision to formally recognise a Palestinian state was bound up with expectations that governance would be reformed and free elections held. Parmeter noted that the postponement places Canberra in an awkward position, pointing out that when Australia extended recognition to a Palestinian state a year ago, that decision came with conditions attached — among them an expectation that Palestinian elections would be held at the earliest opportunity.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which holds a position against recognising a Palestinian state, issued a statement arguing that Australian policy should account for the fact that elections in the region are now not anticipated for another year. Parmeter noted that holding a vote in the West Bank under Israeli administration, at a time when settler violence has been on the rise, would present considerable challenges.
Ted O'Brien, the opposition's foreign affairs spokesperson, described the postponement of elections as stripping away whatever credibility he had attributed to Labor's Palestine recognition — a move he had previously characterised as premature, with the prospect of a democratic vote having been the factor lending it weight in his view. His remarks drew on terminology that Foreign Minister Penny Wong had herself used on the matter. A spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles separately indicated the government was looking to deepen its existing ties with Jordan, with defence cooperation among the areas under active consideration.
Under the Aqaba Process — a Jordan-led forum launched in 2015 — the two countries sit alongside governments and security specialists working to counter terrorism, violent extremism, and newly emerging threats to regional stability. Australia has put forward the possibility of hosting a gathering under the Aqaba Process banner in 2027, centred on cybersecurity, online radicalisation, and the exploitation of emerging technologies.
