Australia has assured Russia the government here does everything it can to protect foreign diplomats, after the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey.
"We take great care to ensure that diplomats in Australia are the subject of protection," Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told ABC radio on Wednesday.
Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by an off-duty policeman at an art gallery opening in the Turkish capital Ankara.
The gunman shouted, "Don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria!" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") during the attack, which Ms Bishop described as an attempt to further destabilise an already volatile region.
"The apparent motive was to disrupt the relations between Russia and Turkey so it was an appalling and deplorable attack," she said.
Nevertheless, a meeting between the Russian, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers to broker a solution on Syria is still going ahead.
And the Russian and Turkish presidents have agreed to a joint committee to investigate the assassination.
"So there is a high level of co-operation between Turkey and Russia and I certainly welcome that," Ms Bishop said.
