White House delivered diplomatic slap to Australia over Harry Harris

Admiral Harry Harris at the Australian War Memorial Last Post Ceremony in Canberra last month. Picture: Gary Ramage.

The Trump administration has delivered a diplomatic slap to Canberra with its ham-fisted decision to pull Admiral Harry Harris as the next US Ambassador to Australia and send him to Seoul.

The eleventh hour decision amounts to very shabby treatment of a close ally regardless of what spin the White House tries to put on it.

Yes, the US needed to appoint a new ambassador in Seoul and it should have done so many months ago.

Yes, you can argue that the 16 month vacancy assumes a greater urgency now than it did before given North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un’s sudden embrace of diplomacy with Donald Trump.

But to switch Harris from Australia to Seoul is robbing Peter to pay Paul. It gives no discernible advantage to Washington, except to fill a job that was vacant for so long because of the dysfunction of the White House.

The only reason the Seoul job has not been filled is that the White House withdrew its previous nominee for the job Victor Cha because he preferred diplomacy with Pyongyang over a so-called ‘bloody nose’ limited military strike. Which — guess what — is exactly the road that the administration is now taking.

So in order to fix up a short-term problem of its own making, the administration has embarrassed Australia and treated it like a second-hand ally by pulling a nominee who had been widely and publicly welcomed by the Turnbull Government.

It is not a great start for incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose idea it was.

The decision demonstrates two things. It shows the paucity of available diplomatic talent in the US if Washington cannot think of a single other suitable candidate for Seoul beyond Harris, who is head of US Pacific Command.

But mostly it reveals the dysfunction inside the Trump administration when it comes to choosing and filling key positions. This has been a constant theme and a constant weakness of the Administration.

The decision will disappoint Australia but it won’t seriously harm the alliance because Canberra has no choice but to take it on the chin.

But it does mean that the US ambassador’s post, already vacant for a remarkable 18 months, will remain unfilled for some time to come.

It also shouldn’t be forgotten that Australia has had some wins during this administration. These include persuading a reluctant Trump to accept the refugee deal and also winning an exemption of the new US tariffs on steel and aluminium.

But Harris was the perfect choice for Australia at the right time. An avowed hawk on China during his long and storied naval career he would have been the right fit in an era when Beijing is posing strategic and economic challenges across the region.

A less chaotic US administration would not have allowed these events to unfold as they have.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia