Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Aussie PM eyes stabilizing U.S. ties
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump was still settling into the Oval Office early last year when he blasted Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the phone for what the president called the “worst deal ever.”
At issue was then-President Barack Obama’s agreement to accept about 1,250 economic refugees who had fled to Australia, mostly from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Pakistan. Taking them, Trump argued, would contradict his vow to ban people arriving from a series of Muslimmajority countries, and to suspend the U.S. intake of refugees.
“I look like a dope,” Trump told Turnbull, according to a transcript of the contentious call that was leaked to The Washington Post in August. “This is going to kill me. I am the world's greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. … It makes me look so bad, and I have only been here a week.”
With Turnbull scheduled to visit the White House on Friday, the Trump administration has accepted up to 170 of the economic refugees, and others are under consideration, according to the State Department. Twenty-two arrived last week in Los Angeles, according to the Refugee Action Coalition, based in Sydney.
In exchange, Australia has agreed to take a number of immigrants fleeing violent countries such as El Salvador and Honduras.
The long-delayed refugee swap has complicated U.S. ties with Australia, long one of America’s staunchest allies, and both countries are eager to get relations back on an even keel.
Trump finally nominated an ambassador to Canberra this month, selecting Adm. Harry Harris Jr., who is finishing up a three-year assignment as head of U.S. Pacific Command.
“Mates stick by each other through good times and bad,” Turnbull wrote in an op-ed for USA Today before his arrival. “Mates have each other's backs.”
Trade is another point of contention. Australia condemned Trump’s decision last year to withdraw from the proposed 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which the Obama administration had negotiated in an effort to help constrain China’s growing power.
Turnbull is bringing 20 business entrepreneurs, and they will lobby governors and lawmakers to build pressure for a return to the TPP, said Joe Hockey, Australia’s ambassador in Washington. Turnbull will make the case when he addresses the National Governors Association winter conference this weekend in Washington.
“I don’t think a lecture from Australia about free trade is going to change (Trump’s) mind, but there needs to be a buy-in from … so many small businesses and communities across the United States who are beneficiaries,” Hockey said.
Trump and Turnbull also are expected to discuss the president’s recent announcement of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, international efforts to isolate nuclear-armed North Korea, and expansion of the “Indo-Pacific” alliance that seeks to counterbalance China.
“The prime minister and the president are actually quite close and they respect each other,” Hockey told reporters in a conference call. “Our prime minister understands New York very well, they share a common transactional business language. … The combined interests of both countries (weigh) more than the minor differences they might have.”
Trump got off to a rocky start with Turnbull, a former Goldman Sachs executive with a strong probusiness bent. during their tense phone conversation Jan. 28, 2017.
But the two met in May in New York at a ceremony commemorating the Battle of the Coral Sea, a major naval engagement in World War II. They appeared to bury any disagreements.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were dispatched to Australia the following month to ease tensions and restore normal relations.