https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... in-pacificNavigating China’s ever expanding influence, while decoding Donald Trump for a somewhat bemused and cynical audience, could be considered a big ask for a self-described “farm boy from Tennessee”.
But Arthur Culvahouse, the USA’s new ambassador to Australia, has hit the ground running, strengthening the United States’ line against China’s soft diplomacy in the Pacific. The sheriff is back in town.
The US vice-president, Mike Pence, for whom Culvahouse carried out the vetting, described China’s loans to Pacific nations as “debt trap diplomacy”. Culvahouse, fresh from conversations on that exact topic with White House advisers, went further.
“I would use stronger language, I would use pay day loan diplomacy,” he said, in his first press conference in Australia, moments after presenting his credentials to the governor general.
“But I think it is on us, all of the allies and the western and liberal democracies to educate people about the dangers of these loans – the fact that the money looks attractive and easy upfront but you better read the fine print.
“I think we have already have done a good job, with Australians and the United States and others in educating targets of [those dangers].”
It is the line he has been sent here to deliver, and the most candid he was prepared to get.
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Trump’s tweet diplomacy, growing tension over a burgeoning trade war between China and the US, and China’s continuing aggression in the South China Sea, as well as the delay in replacing John Berry, meant Culvahouse’s permanent appointment was greeted with a diplomatic sigh of relief.
Translating Trump to an antipodean audience, still somewhat bemused to waking up to streams of consciousness from the tweeter-in-chief, will require strong relationships to be forged, and fast.
It took Barack Obama almost three years to visit Australia following his election but Australia has not been visited by a US president since November 2014. Culvahouse made sure not to set expectations too high on when that might change.
“The president has a busy schedule,” he said. “In talking to the White House before I left, that is still an option that is being considered.”
While he said senior administration officials were expected to visit Australia this year, the president’s “schedule is still being negotiated”, he said.
But in the meantime, the message is the United States is back in town.
“We are a Pacific nation too,” he said.
Damn straight!!
