Scott Morrison meets US President Joe Biden, Boris Johnson in US
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has met with Boris Johnson over dinner after earlier declaring his confidence “that we can avoid conflict” with China.
NSW
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Scott Morrison gave UK PM Boris Johnson a packet of Tim Tams when they met for dinner in Washington, but was noncommittal when asked if he would “save the Ashes” by relaxing travel bans for UK cricketers.
Johnson expressed sympathy over the earthquake in the Victorian Alps and said he knew the area well because he used to go to a pub there.
“I was very sorry to hear you had an earthquake, in Mansfield, which I know well. I remember I used to go to a pub at a place called Merrijig which is near Mansfield.”
Morrison said he heard about the earthquake on the way into Washington, DC, from the airport and had been in immediate text contact with Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews.
They had not discussed the violent protests in Melbourne but Morrison condemned the violence: “that is unacceptable behaviour, and particularly at a time when those in Victoria are dealing with lockdowns and many other stresses … I know it is difficult when there are lockdown restrictions that are being put in place … similar arrangements were put in place in NSW. And I think it’s just very important that we exercise that patience and we get through what is a very difficult time.”
Australian Wagyu beef and Margaret River red wines were on the menu at dinner for Johnson and Morrison at the historic residence of Australian Ambassador Arthur Sinodinos.
Earlier Prime Minister Morrison said he was “confident that we can avoid conflict” with China, despite Beijing’s growing belligerence in the region.
He echoed the comments by President Biden to the United Nations earlier in the day, when he assured the world that America wasn’t leading its allies and Australia into a Cold War with China.
“I am confident that we can avoid the conflict that we all want to avoid, and I believe that includes not only Australia and many countries in our region and friends across ASEAN, but I believe that extends to our partners in the Quad, Japan and India … as it indeed does to China …. I am encouraged by the President’s efforts in seeking that direct engagement and having that direct and honest engagement with China …. The President has a deep understanding of the Indo-Pacific, a very deep understanding. He’s been around this space for a very long time and he knows it intimately. And that is a great reassurance to our partnership.”
The meetings with President Biden this week were “incredibly important “ for Australia’s safety and security and for peace in the region,” he said.
“We were able to reinforce the partnership that we were able to announce last week together, but more importantly, to affirm the ANZUS alliance that this month we marked 70 years of us working together in that way and indeed more than a century of us standing together in so many challenging times.
“And they’re challenging times that we’re facing now. In the partnerships, alliances that we have, many countries we work, we share this with, and that is the Indo-Pacific will be a region that will challenge the world and will determine the future of so many all around the world.
“Together with the United States, we want to ensure that those in Europe and around the world can join us in focusing on addressing those challenges.”
Defence minister Peter Dutton said the US trip is about “keeping Australia safe and secure in an uncertain world … Particularly in the Indo-Pacific we need to provide that leadership, stability and through the [nuclear powered submarine] deal we’ve announced I think we’ve delivered on that. I think many of our neighbours understand the gravity of AUKUS [and] that it will be a positive force for peace and stability in the region.”
visited a submarine factory in Connecticut on Monday – the Electric Boat Company – which since last century has had a very esteemed engagement with the US Defence Force … That starts the 18 months process of discussion with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Kevin Rudd published a piece in the French newspaper La Monde overnight criticising Morrison for striking the AUKUS deal, saying it “made no sense”.
BIDEN: ‘NO CLOSER ALLY’ THAN AUSTRALIA
US president Joe Biden said America had “no closer and more reliable ally”, in a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a New York hotel on Tuesday local time.
“[We] have always shared a partnership that … favours freedom”, said Morrison, referring to the new AUKUS alliance in which Britain and the US will provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia to counter China’s rising belligerence, as well as the 70th anniversary this month of the ANZUS treaty.
The PM thanked Biden for his “focus on the Indo-Pacific region … There’s no doubt you get it.”
Neither leader mentioned China in their public remarks, but instead spoke of partnerships with “like-minded” nations in Europe and Asia who valued freedom.
“Pursuing that freedom … goes to our security risks,” said Morrison. “But more than that it goes to global prosperity, it goes to global freedom, the freedom of our seas, the freedom of our region, addressing the great global challenges of climate change, a new energy economy and a very very challenging future but one that our partnership will be able to address.”
Unlike their virtual meeting last week when Biden referred to Morrison as “that fella down under”, he remembered the PM’s name, and addressed him warmly as “Scott”.
They sat together in a small conference room flanked by advisers, including Foreign Minister Marise Payne, and Defence Minister Peter Dutton on the Australian side, and on the US side, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry, who wore two masks.
Morrison’s five-day trip to New York and Washington, DC, will culminate in the first in-person Quad meeting of Australia, the US, Japan and India, described by Biden as “a historic event” which will continue the “big agenda” he and Morrison discussed, “starting with our partnership to … advance a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Biden came to the meeting fresh from his first address to the United Nations, in which he focused on a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The United States and Australia are working in lock-step on the challenges that I laid out today in my speech to the United Nations: ending Covid, addressing the climate crisis, defending democracy, shaping the rules of the road for the 21st century,” said Biden, reading from notes on his lap.
“I meant what I said. We are at an inflection point, things are changing. You either grasp the change and do it or we’re going to be left behind, always.”
In their short public remarks before the meeting continued behind closed doors, no mention was made of France’s ongoing fury over Australia axing a $90 billion deal to buy their conventional submarines in order to join the AUKUS alliance.
But Biden, who asked French president Emmanuel Macron for a virtual meeting this week to mend fences, picked up on Morrison’s comment that the Australia-US partnership is not exclusionary, but “reaches out to so many others, whether it be our friends in the ASEAN nations or Europe or elsewhere where we share so many like-minded interests.”
The president chimed in to say: “The last point you make is important. It goes way beyond our partnership. Our partnership is in line with all the other democracies in the world.”
PM SAYS SUB SWAP A ‘DIFFICULT DECISION’
After flying into the US, Morrison declared that it would be “naive” not to expect French anger after Australia axed its $90 billion submarine contract in favour of a new alliance with the UK and US aimed at countering China’s aggression.
France’s fury about the new AUKUS alliance, under which Australia will instead buy nuclear-powered submarines from its British and American partners, cast a shadow over Biden’s attempt to repair his foreign policy credibility in his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly.
“It was always going to be a difficult decision,” Mr Morrison said of the submarine swap.
“It would be naive to think that a decision of this nature was not going to cause disappointment, obviously, to the French. We understand that … I had made it very clear that a conventional submarine would no longer be meeting our strategic interests and what we needed those boats to do. That had been communicated very clearly many months ago.
“At the end of the day, you have to do things that are in Australia’s national interest and our security interests.”
The diplomatic fallout from the submarine deal includes an irate China and jittery regional neighbours.
Mr Morrison phoned Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the flight to New York to assure him that the AUKUS alliance would not prompt an “arms race” in the region.
“We had a very warm conversation,” the PM said. “I was able to reassure him, particularly about the issues on non-proliferation and further explained the arrangements around AUKUS.”
Joining Mr Biden and Mr Morrison in New York is the embattled US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who is being criticised for the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal last month, a weak performance with Chinese diplomats in Alaska and a string of foreign policy stumbles.
Climate Special Envoy John Kerry will also be in the New York meeting, to push Australia for climate concessions ahead of November’s Glasgow climate summit.
The PM is also meeting NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in New York, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Swedish PM, and the leader of Austria, in an attempt to ensure the French dispute doesn’t undermine plans for a European trade deal.
Under the AUKUS agreement, Britain’s nuclear-powered submarines will use Australia as a base in order to project a presence in the Indo-Pacific, “right up to the doorstep of China”, senior UK government sources told the Times ahead of the meeting.
Mr Morrison and Mr Sinodinos went to dinner with News Corporation boss Robert Thomson at consul general Nick Greiner’s Manhattan residence.
Joining the PM are Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
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