The new US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse has accused China of being “inappropriately aggressive” and failing to play by the rules across the Indo-Pacific region.
In strongly worded comments, he said China’s recent behaviour, including its “coercive” economic approach and military brinkmanship in the South China Sea makes the Australia-US alliance more relevant than ever before.
His comments came only a day after China blocked some Australian coal exports on what appears to be a political protest against Canberra’s policies towards Beijing.
In an interview with The Australian in Washington today, Mr Culvahouse did not discuss the coal dispute but stated that China was showing a disturbing pattern of aggression.
“What concerns me is that right now China is being inappropriately aggressive, particularly on freedom of the seas, freedom of the skies (and) coercive on economic policy,” he said. “They are just not playing by the rules whether it is the WTO and certainly not the freedom of the seas — their conduct in the South China Sea I think is particularly concerning. “
“It makes it (Australia-US alliance) more relevant yes, absolutely.”
Mr Culvahouse, 70, said he was being posted to Australia at a key time of historic transition in the Indo-Pacific and wanted to send the message to Australians that the alliance was “solemn and unbreakable”.
“I did not want a diplomatic post that was ceremonial, I was looking for a place which was important and where I thought my background might be particularly relevant,” he said.
“Having been in the Reagan White House during the Cold War with the Soviet Union I thought that serving with one of the very strongest allies in the Indo-Pacific region was nice for my skill set.”