SYDNEY: China must act on its declarations of promoting world peace and join the effort to stop Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Australia's prime minister has said on Monday,March 7, warning that the world was in danger of being reshaped by an "arc of autocracy."

Scott Morrison has also suggested in a wide-ranging speech that Russia's invasion was not going according to the plan of its leader, Vladimir Putin, who he said had "overestimated the capacity of how he might be able to prosecute this illegal war."

Morrison has called it a "gross violation of international law" and "the latest example of an authoritarian regime seeking to challenge the status quo through threats and violence." He has also suggested China's silence revealed a natural affinity with Russia that had far-reaching implications.

China has declined to call the Russian attack on Ukraine an "invasion" while asking Western countries to respect Russia's "legitimate security concerns." It has called for a solution to the crisis through negotiations. Russia calls the campaign it launched on February 24 a "special military operation," saying it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.