Washington: Australia is a “model” for the United States on how to respond to the ongoing challenge of economic coercion from China, according to Caroline Kennedy, President Joe Biden’s pick to head the US embassy in Canberra.
Four months after being announced as Biden’s nominee to become the new US Ambassador to Australia, the daughter of one of America’s most loved political couples has spoken out for the first time about her potential new role, which she acknowledged comes at a “tense time” in the Indo-Pacific.
Caroline Kennedy.Credit:Bloomberg
Testifying at her confirmation hearing in Washington today, Kennedy said that the changing dynamics in the region, evolving security tensions, and the demands on trade and commerce had the made relationship between the two countries all the more important.
The “groundbreaking” AUKUS agreement – a military pact announced last year to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines – and the so-called Quad strategic dialogue between Australia, the US, Japan and India also provided important opportunities to strengthen ties, she said.
“I think the Quad is one of the most important initiatives that we have, and a great opportunity for the United States and other like-minded democracies to really work together on key issues like COVID, like climate change, like supply chain resilience and security,” said Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F Kennedy and Jacqueline Onassis.
President Kennedy and his daughter, Caroline, seen sailing in 1962. Credit:AP
During questioning by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kennedy was also asked for her views about the ongoing threat of China, with Republicans and Democrats jointly praising Australia in standing up to Beijing.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney noted he was impressed by the “backbone” Australia had shown on a number of fronts, including its recent boycott of the Winter Olympics over human rights abuses, and its decision to ban smartphone maker Huawei from providing 5G technology for the country’s wireless networks.
Democrat Senator Chris Murphy also pointed to the diplomatic spat that took place in April 2020, when a Communist Party media editor described Australia as “chewing gum stuck on the soul of China’s shoes” after Australia called for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus.
Asked if China’s growing aggression was something she had witnessed in her previous role as the US Ambassador to Japan, Kennedy replied: “I did see it but I think it’s become so much more widespread.”
“Certainly Australia most recently has been challenged by Chinese economic coercion and I think the United States can learn a lot from their response,” she said.
Later, she added: “I think that pushing back on China’s economic coercion is something that United States is going to have to support our allies. Australia has been a model… but this is a complicated issue, and the United States and Australia, I think, are working together across all aspects of the relationship.”
If confirmed, Kennedy’s posting would be the latest milestone in a life underscored by privilege, public service and personal tragedy.
Kennedy was almost six years old when JFK was assassinated in a motorcade in Dallas in November 1963. Five years later, her uncle, Bobby Kennedy, was also assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
After studying at exclusive private schools in New York and Massachusetts, the young Caroline Kennedy worked as an intern at The New York Daily News and in the office of her uncle, Democratic senator Ted Kennedy.
She also worked as a research assistant at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she met her husband Edwin Schlossberg. The pair spent their honeymoon in Australia and returned in 2014, she told the hearing today.
“I’m humbled by this opportunity,” she said.
Kennedy’s potential appointment as US Ambassador to Australia would come at a critical juncture for the US-Australian alliance.
In the latest sign of China’s aggression, the Solomon Islands last week initialled a security deal with Beijing that will pave the way for China to take its first major stake in the Pacific and test Australia’s century-long influence over the region.
The Solomon Islands, the scene of fierce fighting between Japanese and US forces during World War II, is also where Caroline’s father was rescued with the help of an Australian coast watcher.
If finalised, the deal would allow Chinese navy ships and defence forces to be based in Solomons to protect billions of dollars in Chinese infrastructure investment in the developing country.
The US is also working on an Indo-Pacific economic framework that it hopes will strengthen America’s ties in the region, shore up supply chains and ultimately make US allies less vulnerable to Chinese coercion.
Other nominees for Asia also questioned at today’s confirmation hearings, including Philip Goldberg, who Biden has nominated to be the US Ambassador to Korea, and MaryKay Carlson, who has been nominated as the US Ambassador to the Philippines. The confirmation process is ongoing until a vote by the committee, at a time to be determined.
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Most Viewed in World
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
