I don't believe that. Can you find this survey you were talking about?

Basic web search for “australia survey closest international friend” returned https://poll.lowyinstitute.org/charts/australias-best-friend...

	▲	drekipus a day ago \| parent [-]
		Right, so the US had a high of 35% and then dropped and has never been higher than that. I just wanted to check the OPs survey because it could have been something different i.e.: that supports the claim