Tony Abbott reminds US of forgotten destiny

TONY Abbott warned yesterday that the US was in "a period of introspection verging on despondency", but said despite the rise of China it would remain "overwhelmingly the most powerful country in the world".

Mr Abbott nailed his faiths to the wall as he arrived in the US on his belated first visit as Opposition Leader in a bid to showcase his team and prepare for a possible transition to office next year. He saw the US as "family", repudiated pessimistic talk about its decline, forgave its faults and urged the nation to the greatness he believes is its destiny.

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, and in his keynote speech to the Heritage Foundation, Mr Abbott threw out the foreign policy rulebook and spoke from the heart. It was guaranteed to both delight and shock.

"America needs to believe in itself the way others still believe in it," he said. "I am one of those people who think America's destiny is far from done."

In truth, he is taken aback at the mood in the US. At the Heritage Foundation he quoted Franklin Roosevelt back at the Americans, saying they should "take to heart" his advice that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

He declared his unequivocal faith in US values, power and intellectual capabilities. Moving to a pro-US stand beyond that of John Howard, he said "few Australians would regard America as a foreign country".

"We are more than allies, we're family," he said.

While conceding that US and Australian interests "might not always be identical", their values "invariably coincide" and Australia's foreign policy should be driven "as much by our values as by our interests".

Such remarks signpost the sheer depth of any future Abbott government's pro-US policy - it would be driven by his strategic, cultural and emotional make-up.

In a sideswipe at the Obama administration, Mr Abbott said it had "a different view of American greatness" from the Bush administration. "The public in America don't think their country is great right now," he said.

"That's the problem. There seems to be a pervasive lack of confidence at all levels of American society at this time." He said America's world leadership "might only truly be appreciated were it to disappear" and argued that the coming Asian century was not just a Chinese century.

It would be an Indian and Japanese century and also an American century, since the US was an Asia-Pacific power.

"These days, America does not need to be told where it is going wrong but where it is going right," Mr Abbott said.

The backdrop to these remarks is an America afflicted by economic problems, apprehensive about China's rise and concerned about gridlock in congress.

Mr Abbott said the best guarantee of peace was a China that was "freer as well as richer".

He gave a generous interpretation of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. "America's military expeditions may sometimes be mistaken but they're always well-meaning," he said.

Mr Abbott, like Mr Howard, aspires to do substantial business with the US if he becomes prime minister.

His Washington statements reveal that it lies at the centre of his world view. He believes American greatness and power is not in an irreversible slide.

Yet his frustration at America's own apparent loss of confidence is tangible. The question remains: is he a foreign policy realist or just an old-fashioned sentimentalist?

Mr Abbott was supported in Washington by his deputy and foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop, along with several other frontbenchers.

Their visit coincided with the American-Australian Leadership Dialogue, where Labor's delegation of ministers was headed by Trade Minister Craig Emerson.

While the Democrats hold the White House, the Republicans are Mr Abbott's real soulmates.

He had meetings with former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, George W. Bush's former speechwriter Karl Rove, former senior Republican office holder Richard Armitage and Mr Bush's climate change adviser James Connaughton.

They are Republican royalty.

In an unusual event organised by the dialogue, Vice-President Joe Biden met a cross-party Australian delegation that consisted of Mr Abbott, Dr Emerson, Ms Bishop, Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten and former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

And Mr Biden was well briefed: he had a birthday cake for Ms Bishop, who turned 56.