China ‘inappropriately aggressive’: new US Ambassador Arthur Culvahouse

The new US Ambassador to Australia has accused China of failing to play by the rules across the Indo-Pacific region.

Arthur Culvahouse, the new US Ambassador to Australia. Picture: AP

The new US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse has accused China of being “inappropriately aggressive” and failing to play by the rules across the Indo-Pacific region.

In strongly worded comments, he said China’s recent behaviour, including its “coercive” economic approach and military brinkmanship in the South China Sea makes the Australia-US alliance more relevant than ever before.

His comments came only a day after China blocked some Australian coal exports on what appears to be a political protest against Canberra’s policies towards Beijing.

In an interview with The Australian in Washington today, Mr Culvahouse did not discuss the coal dispute but stated that China was showing a disturbing pattern of aggression.

“What concerns me is that right now China is being inappropriately aggressive, particularly on freedom of the seas, freedom of the skies (and) coercive on economic policy,” he said. “They are just not playing by the rules whether it is the WTO and certainly not the freedom of the seas — their conduct in the South China Sea I think is particularly concerning. “

“It makes it (Australia-US alliance) more relevant yes, absolutely.”

Mr Culvahouse, 70, said he was being posted to Australia at a key time of historic transition in the Indo-Pacific and wanted to send the message to Australians that the alliance was “solemn and unbreakable”.

“I did not want a diplomatic post that was ceremonial, I was looking for a place which was important and where I thought my background might be particularly relevant,” he said.

“Having been in the Reagan White House during the Cold War with the Soviet Union I thought that serving with one of the very strongest allies in the Indo-Pacific region was nice for my skill set.”

Australian Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and incoming US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse at the State Department. Source: Instagram

Mr Culvahouse will begin his ambassador duties in Canberra next month, finally filling a key post which has been vacant for almost two and a half years since John Berry left Australia in September 2016.

Mr Culvahouse is a high profile Washington lawyer and a quintessential Republican political insider whose involvement in US politics goes back to Watergate.

He was a staffer for Republican Senator Howard Baker who headed the US Senate Watergate Committee. Mr Culvahouse was involved in Gerald Ford’s 1976 election campaign and from 1987 to 1989 he served as senior counsel to President Ronald Reagan.

Mr Culvahouse, who has had a long career law firm O’Melveny & Myers, also vetted John McCain’s vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin in 2008. In 2016, Donald Trump asked him to vet potential vice presidential running mates, a process which let Mr Trump to choose Mike Pence as his vice presidential nominee.

Mr Trump recently interviewed Mr Culvahouse about becoming his personal lawyer and he enjoys good relations with the president.

Mr Culvahouse said he would “pressure test” the US-Australia relationship when he arrived in Canberra to see if it had any weaknesses.

“The alliance is probably as strong as it has ever been from a military and intelligence point of view,” he said. “One of the things I have set out to do after arriving is to pressure test the relationship just to make sure I can identify any cracks or flaws and address those. And I frankly have found none so far.”

He said Mr Trump was “quite positive” about the US alliance with Australia.

“I have done a whole series of (pre-posting) consultations and without exception the message is that (our) national security guys, the secretary of state, senior officials throughout the cabinet and the intelligence community have said that I should go with the understanding that our commitment to Australia is solemn, it’s unbreakable.”

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia