Keeping Australia and Australians safe, secure and free is a priority of the Australian Government's Foreign Policy White Paper.

Terrorism is a global challenge, and we work closely with our international partners in the region and beyond.

Underpinning Australia's fight against terrorism is Australia's Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which is based on partnerships between all levels of government, communities and the private sector. The Strategy focuses on:

• disrupting terrorist activity within Australia;
• ensuring an effective response to and recovery from any terrorist incidents;
• reducing the lure of violent extremist ideologies;
• stopping Australians from using violence to express their views, and
• contributing to global counter-terrorism efforts.

Australia's international counter-terrorism efforts are focused on law enforcement, intelligence, border and transport security, diplomacy, defence, terrorist financing, building counter-terrorism capacity in the region and countering violent extremism.

International Counter-Terrorism Engagement

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade leads Australia's whole-of-government international engagement effort. This includes bilateral and multilateral engagement, supporting a range of capability-development and capacity-building activities across the globe and particularly in the Indo-Pacific Region.

Multilateral and regional engagement on counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism also forms a core part of our work, including in forums such as the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the ASEAN Regional Forum and the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF). These forums contribute to norm setting and enhance cooperation and coordination of capacity-building efforts.