Anthony Albanese questioned on US Ambassador Kevin Rudd's future after criticisms of Donald Trump
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed US Ambassador Kevin Rudd to keep his job amid calls he can no longer successfully build a relationship with the US President Donald Trump.
Former Australian prime minister Rudd has made numerous sledges about Trump, including calling him a 'village idiot', 'political liability' and 'traitor to the west' in the past.
On Tuesday, a pollster appeared on Sunrise where he said his position as US Ambassador was untenable and affecting Australia's relationship with the United States.
Sunrise's Nat Barr questioned Albanese over Rudd's comments.
'(A US pollster) says there's no coming back from Mr Rudd's past comments about the President. Are you putting your loyalty to Kevin Rudd above our alliance with the US?' Barr asked.
Albanese replied: 'Well, JD Vance had some pretty strong comments, it's got to be said, and he's now the vice president of the United States of America.'
Albanese went on to claim he has had 'warm conversations' with Trump.
'President Trump has had very warm discussions with me,' Albanese said.
'The relationship with the United States is an important one.
'It says something about the importance we place in it that we have a former prime minister in Kevin Rudd as our ambassador.
'That says a lot about the priority that we place in the relationship with the United States.'
Albanese is still yet to meet with Trump, following the cancellation of their meeting at the G7 summit.
However, Albanese did say he spoke with the president on a phone call following his election win in May.
'The President rang me to congratulate me on (our) re-election.'
He then moved on to US tariffs, saying Australia has the 'lowest in the world'.
'The US has imposed this across-the-board, and we have a 10 per cent rate, and what we've seen is, indeed, Australia's exports to the United States did not change,' Albanese said.
'Australia has no advantage or disadvantage. Indeed, we have a comparative advantage over those countries that have a higher tariff rate than 10 per cent.'
Albanese has been making headlines amid his failure to secure a meeting with US President, Donald Trump.
A number of Coalition politicians have said he should be making it one of his top priorities, saying Australia is suffering as a result of the declining relationship.
The prime minister denied this was the case.
'(People would think that Australia is this little country that doesn't contribute anything to this relationship. We do,' he said.
'We're an important ally for United States.
'We are a middle power who exercises a great deal of influence in the Indo-Pacific, in ASEAN, and we play a role in peace and security in the region.'
ASEAN is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia.
Meanwhile, APEC is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which is a regional economic forum.
Albanese continued: 'As well as that, we are an important economic relationship with North America and other countries in the region.
'APEC is just one of the meetings that President Trump will attend, as well as myself, summit season is always at the end of the year.
'We have the G20.
'We have APEC, we have a range of meetings where the US President would be expected to attend, as well as leaders in the region, as well as, of course, the Quad meeting that will take place this year in India.'
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