As Joe Biden says, this great US-Australia alliance will only grow stronger

Then US vice-president Joe Biden delivers a speech on US-Australia relations in Sydney in 2016. Picture: Adam Taylor

President Joe Biden’s clear and strong Inauguration Day commitment to seek unity and bipartisanship is reassuring and important, valued by Australia and the world. Australia wishes him, and all political interlocutors in the US, the very best in this endeavour. It is up to Americans to carry that forward, but Australia will be cheering them on.

A united America is a strong America, and a strong US is overwhelmingly in Australia’s interests.

Our values and perspectives align so closely that a future circumstance in which our foreign policy interests diverge to such an extent that our alliance and our close friendship is not of substantial mutual benefit is difficult to envisage. Our alliance is incredibly stable.

However, the evolving set of international challenges means that the way our two countries work together must also necessarily evolve.

The federal government is not blind to the fact that the US has gone through a difficult political period. Those around the world who had confidence in American institutions, and their democracy, have been proved right. There has been a constitutional transition of power to the new administration.

The US will continue to provide strength, stability and leadership to the world as it always has. In doing so it will champion the liberal democratic, market-based values we share.

It is only reasonable, indeed, expected, that Americans should have a long and thoughtful conversation about the role they want to play in a more complex and challenging world. Australia has long made it clear that we do not expect the US single-handedly to uphold the security and prosperity of the region and the world.

We are consistently and constructively playing our part in supporting that vision for our Indo-Pacific region. Through our strong and growing partnerships in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, our proactive support for the role of existing groups such as ASEAN — which in 2019 released its vital Outlook on the Indo-Pacific — and new multi-country groupings such as the Quad, our increased defence spending and development of paths to build greater stability in our region through health and economic recovery measures, Australia is a strong leader and partner.

We want any US administration to be able to point to Australia when an American asks why their nation should be doing the heavy lifting around the world.

We have worked well with the Trump administration over the past four years towards these ends, including one of the most substantive and successful AUSMIN meetings ever held, and two unprecedented ministerial-level Quad meetings. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo was a forthright, no-nonsense friend and partner, ambitious for the US relationship with Australia and for the cause of democratic freedoms.

We will work positively with the Biden administration, many of whose key team members are well known to us and good friends to Australia — including President Biden himself and, pending confirmation, my new counterpart, Secretary of State Tony Blinken. As Australia’s Minister for Women, I cannot overstate the significance of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s inauguration for women and girls around the world.

We must be prepared for the fact that the Biden administration faces urgent challenges at home — chiefly managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet there is much we can do together. We welcome steps already taken, such as recommitting the US to the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organisation.

We look forward to working closely with the administration to share experiences and deliver practical action on climate change, including on low emissions technologies, on health security, including through COVID-19 vaccine distribution and on issues such as free and open trade, cyber space, critical technologies, supply chain resilience and critical minerals — all of which will be vital to future economic growth and security.

Australia will continue to speak strongly, often in harmony with the US, on issues of common concern, including human rights and the rule of law.

President Biden’s proposal of a global summit of democracies is a strong sign that a 21st century international framework that recognises values in foreign policy will be a welcome part of the administration’s agenda.

Many commentators will keenly observe how we engage in our respective relationships with China. Australia has its challenges in its relationship with Beijing even as we seek to co-operate to our mutual benefit. The US, meanwhile, has entered a period of overt competition with China that will endure throughout changes in administration. The fact that two of President Biden’s key appointments to the National Security Council — Jake Sullivan and Kurt Campbell — wrote in late 2019 a blueprint for what they called “competition without catastrophe”, portends a constructive and intelligent approach.

Australia will benefit in the long term if there is a network of nations, with the US as a leading participant, that consistently and with strategic sagacity makes clear what constitutes legitimate behaviour under a rules-based system, even one that is evolving to take account of the interests of rising powers. We will support adherence to international rules and norms, promote transparency and stand against malicious behaviour such economic coercion, human rights abuses and the use of disinformation.

The US remains the indispensable partner in this project to not only maintain, but modernise and improve security and prosperity in a region of free, sovereign and resilient states that actively seek areas to co-operate, work constructively together and join to respond firmly when any country resorts to raw power over rules.

America remains vital because of its values and its history of idealism, but also because of its sheer practical advantages. This is America the innovator, the economic powerhouse, diplomatic leader and Australian ally.

This government will work with the Biden administration on a vision I know we share. When then vice-president Biden visited Australia in 2016 he said, “the great friendship between our two nations will not diminish. It will grow stronger with every generation.” I couldn’t agree more. We again congratulate President Biden on his inauguration and welcome him to what will continue to be an indispensable partnership.

Marise Payne is Minister for Foreign Affairs.