Relationship dossier
Australia
Spain
Relationship assessment
Practical cooperation includes naval shipbuilding and social security coordination.
Australia toward Spain
+30Australia selected Navantia’s design and contracted for two Canberra-class naval ships, providing a major government procurement link with Spain.
Spain toward Australia
+30Spain’s state-owned Navantia built two Canberra-class naval ships for Australia, creating a significant defense-industrial cooperation arrangement. Spain and Australia also coordinate social security under a bilateral agreement.
Overall relationship
+35The relationship includes concrete defense-industrial cooperation through Australia’s procurement of two ships built by Spain’s state-owned Navantia, as well as bilateral social security coordination. These arrangements indicate a cooperative relationship, though its wider scope is uncertain.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Australia and Spain have practical bilateral cooperation, notably Australia’s procurement of two Canberra-class naval ships built by Spain’s state-owned Navantia and a bilateral social security agreement. These arrangements provide evidence of substantive cooperation, although the breadth and recent development of government-to-government engagement are less clear.
Key developments
Australia and Spain’s bilateral social security agreement entered into force.
Australia’s Canberra-class naval ships, based on a Navantia design and built by the Spanish company, entered service.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and current implementation of broader bilateral cooperation are unclear.
- The extent of recent defense and economic cooperation beyond the naval shipbuilding program is unclear.