Kevin Rudd defends Joe Biden over cancelled trip to Australia

Kevin Rudd has spoken out on Joe Biden’s canned trip to Australia which is said to have infuriated Indo-Pacific leaders. See what he said.

US ambassador Kevin Rudd has rejected suggestions Joe Biden’s decision to cancel his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea is a blow to America’s standing in the region, saying the diplomatic snub is a “very small thing”.

While the former prime minister acknowledged it was “disappointing”, he defended the US President’s call to fly home from the G7 summit in Japan this weekend so he could negotiate a deal to prevent the US government defaulting on its debts.

“I think we need to take a step back to pull out our smelling salts and say, look, the postponement of a presidential visit in the scheme of all this is quite small,” Dr Rudd told National Public Radio in the US.

“This is just one of those things that happens, and we get the intensity of the debate on the future of the debt ceiling in the Congress.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their last Quad summit. Picture: AFP

But Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute – which was led by Dr Rudd before he became the ambassador in March – said there was “no question” Mr Biden’s call would be poorly received in the Indo-Pacific.

“It will be seen in the region as a self-inflicted wound caused by political polarisation in Washington that does not reflect well on America’s reliability as a partner,” he said.

American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Zack Cooper agreed the cancellation would do “real damage to the US argument that we are a reliable partner”.

And Ashley Townsend, a senior fellow for Indo-Pacific security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the “optics couldn’t be worse”.

Excellent meeting with 🇺🇸 @SecBlinken. We’re looking forward to @POTUS’ forthcoming visit to 🇦🇺, including for QUAD leaders’ summit hosted by @AlboMP in May. We discussed 🇦🇺🇺🇸 efforts to implement AUKUS, advance IPEF and place climate action at centre of our modern alliance pic.twitter.com/HUNh8gRZte

— Kevin Rudd AC (@AmboRudd) May 12, 2023

Mr Biden’s decision forced Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to scrap plans to hold the Quad summit at the Sydney Opera House next week, with the leaders to instead meet in Japan on the sidelines of the G7.

Dr Rudd said the Quad agenda would still be rolled out as planned, as he praised the overall strength of America’s relationships with its allies in the region including Australia.

“We’ve been around for a very long time with America. This alliance of ours has been through some 15 Australian prime ministers and 14 American presidents,” he told NPR.

“I think the relationship between the two of us is as robust and as intense as I’ve ever seen it across that span of history.”

He also shot down claims that Mr Biden’s cancellation was a diplomatic win for China.

“It’s not just a single visit that sums up the totality of the engagement of US and allied diplomacy over the last two and a half years,” Dr Rudd said.

Originally published as Kevin Rudd defends Joe Biden over cancelled trip to Australia