Recognizing Australia’s extraordinary commitment to the U.S.-led liberal international order, President Trump should invite Prime Minister Scott Morrison on a second state visit.
That invitation would be a great honor. After all, Australia received a state visit less than one year ago, in September 2019. State visits are normally years apart. Still, a second state visit in such short order would send two important messages to the world. First, that the Trump administration recognizes those allies who make hard choices in order to stand with the United States. Second, that the U.S. will consolidate allies against external pressure. Both points take on special significance in the context of what Australia is now doing.
Because Australia isn’t simply standing with America, it is standing up against an increasingly aggressive China.
Under Morrison’s now two-year premiership, Canberra has taken steadily increasing action to challenge the Chinese Communist regime. Morrison’s action was necessary in light of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s growing confidence that Australia could be bent to his will. Leveraging China’s critical import market for Australian goods, and conducting an extensive influence campaign, including covert action to intimidate China-skeptical politicians and think tanks, Beijing had made a powerful assumption. Namely, that no Australian government would stand up for the post-war international order if doing so would risk its critical economic interests.
To its growing discomfort, China has learned that its assumption was very, very wrong.
Since entering office, Morrison has cracked down on Chinese influence and espionage operations, and he has boosted investment in military capabilities relevant to the South China Sea. When China has increased its threat of tariffs and other punitive measures, Morrison has simply doubled down. To be clear, the measure of these actions has been more courageous than those of any other U.S. ally, including the United Kingdom. Certainly, Morrison has far more right to call himself a leader of the free world than does German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
On Thursday, however, Australia took yet another step in defense of the liberal international order.
Morrison’s government issued an official diplomatic posture statement rejecting China’s claims of ownership to the South China Sea. Matching a recent statement by the Trump administration on those same lines, Morrison is showing his joined understanding of history and contemporary political reality. Facing Imperial Japan in the late 1930s and 1940s, Australia recognized the need to stand with America in defense of democratic values and the international rule of law. Today, China’s blatantly imperial strategy offers a contemporary counterpart to the Imperial Japan of old. Morrison understands that if China succeeds in stealing the South China Sea and in using trade as a means of political subjugation, Australians will be poorer, less safe, and, ultimately, less free. Morrison’s courage thus sets an example for other democratic nations.
The Trump administration should show its gratitude.
For a start, Trump must now clarify his strategic objectives in relation to the South China Sea situation. It is unacceptable that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being left to take the lead here: Allies deserve leadership from the very top. Trump should also make clear than any Chinese tariffs or efforts to extort Australia will meet immediate American reprisal.
Yes, a state dinner is centered more on pomp than in politics. But the pomp reflects something valuable: shared commitment. Australia is an exceptional ally. It deserves the unprecedented honor of a second state visit in as many years.