US sends message of indifference

There is no doubt Richard Marles is working for Australia’s best interests in his efforts to broker a meeting between Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese, and engage with his US counterparts, Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Anyone who understands the vital importance of the AUKUS defence pact, and the effort that is required to bring it to reality, cannot but support the outcomes Mr Marles is working to deliver. That said, the scrambled communications and almost comical nature of Mr Marles’s experience in Washington since he touched down on a hastily arranged trip must beg the question: How did US-Australia relations come to this?

Donald Trump is one answer, but the Albanese government has shown itself incapable of finding the diplomatic finesse being deployed by Europe and other key US allies. Having learnt their lesson during Mr Trump’s first presidency, European leaders know the recipe for US engagement is flattery and a preparedness to carry their weight on defence spending. Europe has good reason to muscle up given the situation in Ukraine, but the US has made clear its primary security interest involves China and our region.

Despite this, the Albanese government has gone out of its way to put itself at odds with the Trump administration across a wide range of fronts. The list includes siding with the UN against the US position on Israel’s war of self-defence against Hamas. Mr Albanese’s extended visit to China and meeting with Xi Jinping before meeting Mr Trump sent a wrong signal, as did the cavalier refusal to consider US requests for a meaningful increase in Australia’s defence spending. The net result has been unnecessary insecurity about the future of the AUKUS pact, which is now under review in Washington. As defence expert Peter Jennings has written, the Americans think we are under-investing in defence, that our preparations for the nuclear-powered submarines are insufficient, and that we differ on how to deal with an increasingly aggressive China.

US-Australian relations will outlive both Mr Trump and Mr Albanese’s terms in office, but a great deal of damage can be done along the way. The treatment of Mr Marles and his brief “happenstance” meeting with Mr Hegseth is a reflection both of the ineptitude of organisation and general disinterest being shown to the Albanese government at the highest levels in Washington. Eventually, there will have to be a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Albanese. The Marles reconnaissance mission is a sharp warning of what still needs to be done to avoid unnecessary and costly international humiliation for Mr Albanese.