Trump Discusses China Threat With Ex-Australian Prime Minister: Morrison

The former president has held a string of similar meetings with other current and former world leaders.
Trump Discusses China Threat With Ex-Australian Prime Minister: Morrison
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison during an official visit ceremony at the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 20, 2019, in Washington. Zach Gibson/Getty Images
Samantha Flom
Updated:
0:00

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) continued aggressions in the Indo-Pacific were a recent topic of conversation between former President Donald Trump and former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the latter has revealed.

In a May 15 social media post, Mr. Morrison said he was “pleased to meet with” President Trump the night before at Trump Tower in New York.

“It was nice to catch up again, especially given the pile-on he is currently dealing with in the U.S.,” he said, referencing the four criminal indictments and other civil lawsuits the former president is currently fending off.

Mr. Morrison went on to say that they had discussed AUKUS—the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK, and the United States—and “the continuing assertions of China in the Indo-Pacific and the threats against Taiwan.”

“These were issues we discussed regularly when we were both in office,” he said. “Once again, the former President showed his true appreciation of the value he places on the Australia-U.S. alliance and the shared role of supporting what our friend, Shinzo Abe, called a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Mr. Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister in history, was assassinated on July 8, 2022.

Mr. Morrison shared a photo of himself and President Trump from their reported meeting alongside the update.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

Mr. Morrison’s comments come after Taiwan issued a travel advisory earlier this month warning citizens against visiting China due to the heightened risk of wrongful detention amid Beijing’s expansion of its state secrets law.

His visit also marks the latest in a series of private meetings President Trump has recently held with both current and former world leaders.

Last month, the former president met with Polish President Andrzej Duda, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, and former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. He also reportedly spoke with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the phone.

In March, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, urging him to “Come back and bring us peace, Mr. President!”

The high-profile meetings come amid the 45th president’s bid to defeat incumbent President Joe Biden and reclaim the White House this November.

By meeting with President Trump, some foreign leaders could be signaling who they think will emerge victorious from that dust-up.

But asked if he thought his visit with the presumptive GOP nominee might antagonize the Biden administration, President Duda rejected the idea.

“I am not afraid because presidents meet with their colleagues, especially those who used to hold the president’s office in their countries. This is a normal practice; there is nothing special about it,” he told reporters ahead of the April 17 meeting.

“The presidents also meet different politicians during their foreign visits. It is normal that when two countries have good relationships, they want to have good relations with different sides of the political scene.”

That view was echoed by U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who said there was nothing unusual about foreign leaders meeting with a presidential nominee.

“We have seen over the course of years of American elections where foreign governments engage with the nominees of major parties here, just as American diplomats and American leaders often engage with foreign opposition leaders,” he said.

President Trump is currently in New York for a criminal trial over his alleged falsification of business records. But he has still found the time to campaign at his trademark rallies, with the most recent one held in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 11. Although estimates vary, some have put the size of the crowd in the high tens of thousands.

The former president maintains that the criminal prosecutions he is facing are all part of a scheme directed by President Biden to thwart his presidential bid.

The president and other administration officials have denied those allegations.

Naveen Athrappully, Janice Hisle, and Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.
Samantha Flom
Samantha Flom
Author
Samantha Flom is a reporter for The Epoch Times covering U.S. politics and news. A graduate of Syracuse University, she has a background in journalism and nonprofit communications. Contact her at [email protected].
Related Topics