One of Australia's most important allies in the Middle East has touched down in Canberra for the first time in 10 years.
King Abdullah II of Jordan arrived late on Monday night with a schedule full of high-level meetings, defence and cultural engagements, as the government schmoozes up a stable partner in an increasingly volatile neighbourhood.
"In a time of increasing uncertainty around the world, ongoing defence and security cooperation between Australia and Jordan is essential, as regional security partners," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
On Tuesday, King Abdullah met House of Representatives Speaker Milton Dick, as the prime minister prepares to roll out the red carpet.
The King's last visit to Australia was in 2016.
Canberra has provided Jordan $130 million in humanitarian funding since 2017 to help cushion it against the Syrian Civil War, which made the kingdom a haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees.
But despite being near the conflict between Israel and Palestine to its west, Syria to its north and Iraq to its east, Jordan has proven one of the Middle East's most stable, peaceful countries and a dependable defence partner.
Its steadiness is partly aided by a security apparatus which has ratcheted up since protests erupted during the 2011 Arab Spring, according to the Human Rights Foundation, which classifies Jordan as fully authoritarian.
But in September, King Abdullah grabbed headlines by blasting Israeli human rights violations in Gaza at the UN General Assembly in New York, pleading with world leaders to cooperate to uphold the rule of law.
The US's war with Iran has also ravaged Jordan's tourism sector, which is one of the Middle East's strongest.
Trade between Australia and Jordan is worth about half a billion dollars a year, mostly in agricultural products.
King Abdullah's royal house, the Hashemites, traces its lineage back to Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, more than 1000 years ago, but it has only ruled over the modern-day state of Jordan since 1921.
The impressive ancestry makes them the oldest dynasty in the Muslim world.