Climate shapes as key in relationship

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

PrimeMinister Scott Morrison worked hard to cement the bonds of friendship with US President Donald Trump. But as Trump discovered this month, friendship is fungible when it comes to maintaining diplomatic bonds. Morrison was quick to call President-elect Joe Biden to congratulate him, reflecting in a tweet that ‘‘there are no greater friends and no greater allies than Australia and the US’’.

For Australia, Biden’s foreign policy choices offer real support, including in our fraught relationship with China, but the Biden agenda also throws up challenges Australia must address. His speech this week explicitly spelled out his plan to re-engage with some of the thorny international dilemmas that never had buy-in from arch-isolationist Trump – the Middle East, global vaccination roll-outs, international trade and China’s impact on nations apart from the US. That means the US will be able to work again with us and other nations to provide a united stance against China’s excesses, while allowing individual countries to negotiate without having to choose between superpowers.

Morrison says he did not discuss Biden’s netzero climate emissions target with Biden in their first phone call but it’s a topic that is shaping early to be the most testing part of what should otherwise be a significantly easier relationship.