Aukus, other China-related priorities likely to survive Trump, top US envoy says

The US State Department’s top official on the Indo-Pacific said Thursday that technology trade restrictions and military deterrence aimed at China should be the most likely area of policy continuity with the incoming administration of president-elect Donald Trump.

Briefing reporters in Washington following the “recent” arrival of the transition team to the department, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said he expected Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s selection for secretary of state, to keep many of US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific initiatives largely intact.

Those initiatives, he said, would likely include the security pact comprising the US, Britain and Australia, known as Aukus, which was established in 2021.

“There will be inevitable areas where the Trump administration will seek to do things differently, but I would also posit there will be areas of continuity, [and] I think we will see more areas of continuity in the Indo-Pacific than perhaps in some other regional areas,” Campbell said.

“There is a deep interest in every element of the bilateral relationship between the United States and China,” he added.

“There have been questions around our technology policy, steps that we’ve taken to enhance our deterrent capabilities across the Indo-Pacific, military deployments, interest in the kind of bilateral engagements that we’ve had in the recent past and the kind of recurring venues of engagement between Beijing and Washington.