Brussels: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has thanked Australia for sending a surveillance aircraft to watch for threats from Russia, as he warned that conflict in Europe was shaping security risks in Asia.

Rutte said defence partnerships with Australia and other Asian countries were crucial to helping Ukraine, given the support for Russia that is coming from China and North Korea.

The comments came as Australian officials marked the end of a major deployment by an early warning aircraft that monitored the skies over eastern Europe to help defend NATO airspace.

A NATO spokesperson said the RAAF surveillance aircraft conducted 45 missions and that half of these were done at short notice after alerts were raised to mobilise to monitor airspace.

While officials would not discuss operat

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