Australia’s incoming ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd urged the nation to stop throwing its allies “under a bus” if it wants to counter China’s economic influence in the Asia-Pacific.
Rudd, a former Labor prime minister of Australia who will take up his diplomatic posting in March, said the United States had “one arm tied behind its back” and was not using the economy as part of its overall security strategy in limiting Beijing’s influence in the region.
“For the future, what is the missing elements in the United States’s grand strategy? It’s called the economy, stupid,” he told Bloomberg TV, using a famous quote by American political consultant James Carville….