Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop showed no concern about President Trump’s Twitter usage following a meeting American officials on the Australian partnership with the United States.
“In relation to Twitter, I understand that it has a maximum of 140 characters,” Bishop replied drily to a reporter who described Trump as having “launched a Twitter attack on Germany” and criticized London’s mayor.
Bishop’s rebuff of Twitter critics was in keeping with the spirit of a visit from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who traveled to Australia for a fence-mending meeting with their counterparts. Australian leaders haven’t had the smoothest relationship with the Trump administration — the president famously argued with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about a refugee agreement in their first conversation — but officials from both sides closed ranks on Monday.
“[W]e deal with the president, with his Cabinet, and with the U.S. administration on what they do, what they achieve, what their strategies are,” Bishop said, “and how we can work together in close and deep cooperation to uphold that international rules-based order and to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to our part of the world as the United States has guaranteed and assured for the last 70 years.”
Bishop wasn’t the only diplomat to turn comedic in response to a question about the Trump administration withdrawing from trade and climate deals that the Australians supported. “What specific promises have you brought on trade and climate to ensure that Australians do not interpret ‘America first’ to mean America the selfish, America the boorish, or America the go-it-alone?” the reporter asked.
“Are you sure you don’t have more?” Tillerson replied, before defending the Trump administration’s decisions.
“The fact that the Trump administration has examined agreements that were entered into by the prior administration but never taken to the American people or taken to our Congress to get an assessment of their view of those agreements does not define the trading relationships between the United States and Australia nor other relationships on issues that are of mutual importance,” he said.
Bishop emphasized that Australia isn’t simply following instructions from the United States.
“I should point out that Australia has its own views on our priorities and our interests. As it happens, they align so often with those of the United States,” she said. “And we certainly are absolutely aligned with the United States in supporting the rules-based order, and we make up our own mind about when Australia should act, when Australia should be involved in defense and security operations. As it happens, the United States and Australia share similar views.”
