The Federal Government has announced that all Australian-led international Anzac Day events, including the Dawn Service at Gallipoli, will be cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has told Australians to reconsider all overseas travel, and is urging all citizens already overseas to consider coming home as soon as possible.
The announcement comes after Anzac Day events in Australia were cancelled, as the Government bans large gatherings of people amid the spread of COVID-19.
The decision will affect overseas Anzac Day services that were scheduled for Saturday, April 25.
It includes the dawn services at Gallipoli in Turkey and on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
Other Anzac Day services scheduled for Papua New Guinea and Thailand have also been called off.
Darren Chester, the Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel, told ABC News it was a "difficult decision" taken with "great regret", but was necessary to ensure the safety of Australians.
"We simply couldn't be having large gatherings of 500 or 100 people on Anzac Day on foreign soil this year," Mr Chester said.
"A lot of our veterans are approaching 95 or 100 years of age, we didn't want to expose them to those conditions."
In Australia, a number of states have moved to cancel some Anzac Day services and ban the public from attending others in an attempt to thwart the spread of COVID-19.
The RSL branches in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia made their decisions more than a month before the memorials.
A selection of dawn services will be held across the country, but the public will be asked not to attend.
Any marches or midday services will be cancelled.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said veterans would be able to participate "at least remotely" in a televised Anzac Day service from Canberra "on one of the most important days of the year for all Australians".
