Britain warned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday that their allies would unite to resist dictatorships that were more emboldened than at any point since the Cold War.

In an address in Australia, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain and its friends in the "free world" must work cooperatively to address global dangers, strengthen ties with Indo-Pacific democracies, and "confront global aggressors" who use economic reliance to achieve their ends.

Truss and Britain's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, met in Sydney on Friday with their Australian counterparts for the annual Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations (AUKMIN). A deal for Australia to acquire nuclear submarines was discussed.

Australia's defense minister, Peter Dutton, stated that no plans exist to create a British military facility, despite the British navy's increased presence in the Pacific. The two countries signed agreements to fund regional infrastructure as a counterweight to Beijing's influence.

In a joint statement, the ministers expressed alarm about Russia's military buildup along the Ukrainian border and pledged "complete support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Truss urged Putin to "desist and withdraw from Ukraine" in an address to the Lowy Institute's foreign affairs think tank.

Truss contended that the "Kremlin has not learned the lessons of history" and that "invasion will inevitably result in a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we saw during the Soviet-Afghan war and the Chechen conflict."

Between 1979 and 1989, about 15,000 Soviet troops died in Afghanistan, while hundreds of thousands of Afghans perished. Between 2001 and 2021, the US-led conflict in Afghanistan claimed over 3,500 lives within the international military coalition.

Global aggressors are "empowered in ways not seen since the Cold War," Truss stated in the address.

"They wish to export dictatorship as a service," she continued. "That is why regimes such as Belarus, North Korea, and Myanmar look to Moscow and Beijing for support."

Britain should coordinate its efforts with allies like Australia, Israel, India, Japan, and Indonesia to "counter global aggressors," particularly in the Pacific.

"It is past time for the free world to assert itself," she said, adding that China's "economic coercion" of Australia was "one of the wake-up calls" for Britain that Beijing was using its economic strength to exercise influence on other countries.

Beijing has refuted charges of economic coercion after it placed trade restrictions on Australian goods in response to Canberra's proposal for an international probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

The West portrays Russia as a despotic kleptocracy ruled by a mercurial elite that has engaged in irresponsible acts such as the 2014 annexation of Crimea, meddling in US and European elections, and a succession of high-profile espionage and assassination attempts overseas.

According to Russian officials, the West is divided and gripped by Russophobia and hence has no right to lecture Moscow on how to behave.