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Morrison also rejected the argument that a Trump administration would be “scary” for the world because he would be weak on leaders such as Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
“I’ll tell you who’s scary – Vladimir Putin is scary, Xi Jinping is scary, Ayatollah Khamenei is scary. Donald Trump is not scary,” he told Sky News.
Morrison said AUKUS was a good deal for the US and Australia and would be supported by Trump for that reason.
The AUKUS pact currently assumes Australia will buy the first of three Virginia-class submarines from the US in 2032 and the second in 2035. It says the first vessel in a new design, known as the SSN-AUKUS, will be completed at an Australian shipyard in the early 2040s.
As an interim step, the government assumes US and UK submarines will start operating on rotation from HMAS Stirling, near Perth, from 2027, easing the burden on Australia’s ageing Collins-class vessels.
Australia will also pay $4.7 billion to US companies to help fund the technologies – such as nuclear propulsion – needed for the new fleet.
Former attorney-general George Brandis, who was Australian high commissioner to the UK when the AUKUS pact was struck, said he believed the agreement was not under threat from Trump.
However, he expressed concern that Trump would give a “green light” to dictators if he weakened American support for Ukraine against Putin.
“Australia is in a better position than European allies, but a Trump administration will make the global order less stable,” he said.
America remained an ally for Australia and others, Brandis said, but a less reliable one.
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Former diplomat Dennis Richardson, who was ambassador to the US from 2005 to 2010, also said Trump was likely to back the AUKUS alliance.
“Both [former prime minister Malcolm] Turnbull and Morrison worked that relationship hard and did well, so the starting point with Trump is not a bad one,” he said.
“It’ll be important for people to put aside their own views about Trump as a person, and separate that out from the way we should approach him and his administration.”
Richardson said the world was heading for a “less certain” time under a Trump administration and raised two concerns – first, that western democracies would weaken their support for Ukraine against Putin, and second, that US tariffs would set off a trade war.
Turnbull was prime minister when Trump sought to impose sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminium in 2016 to protect American industry, leading Turnbull to negotiate directly with the then president and successfully gained an exemption for Australia.
The Australian ambassador to the US, former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has also drawn criticism from Trump and some of his supporters in recent months over remarks made several years ago in which Rudd described Trump as “nuts” and a “traitor to the West” because of his stance on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Coalition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham signalled on Wednesday morning that the government might have to consider Rudd’s position if he was not able to work with a new administration.
“Obviously, everybody’s aware of what was said in the past that’s been publicised, but Kevin Rudd’s done a good job while he’s been in Washington,” Birmingham told the Nine Network.
“Now, the job is bigger than any one person or Anthony Albanese’s loyalties to any one person, so if he can’t do the job, he can’t get through the door and have the influence we need, then, of course, somebody else should take that on.
“But we wish him nothing but success, because we want to see Australia’s best interests protected at all times.”
Morrison made no criticism of Rudd and said he hoped Albanese would listen to the ambassador.
“Kevin’s doing his job, and he’ll keep doing his job, and my hope is that the prime minister will listen to him about how they should best approach this, because the tariff policy will present a challenge, just like it did for myself and Malcolm Turnbull.
“When there were attempts to put on protectionist tariffs against Australian steel and aluminium, we were able to convince him that that wasn’t the way to go, and that’s what you have to do when you’re the prime minister. You have to build the relationships and get the job done.”
