U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday hailed the long military alliance between U.S. and Australia, as he toured a new Australian navy ship.
He declared that the U.S. was in the Pacific to stay.
Biden told the crew of the Royal Australian Navy’s newest giant landing ship in Sydney harbour that the U.S. had huge respect for their Australian allies.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” the Vice President told the military contingent which included the crew and veterans of Australia’s Middle East campaigns.
Australia had always been a reliable ally, Biden said and now that it is building 12 new submarines and 72 joint strike fighter planes it would be one of the US’s most advanced allies.
He said that Americans had fought beside Australians in many campaigns over the past century.
“They know the Aussies will always have their backs – and we will always have your backs,” Biden said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will meet Biden Tuesday evening in Sydney after his new government was sworn in by the governor-general in Canberra.
With 23 ministers it is one of the largest front benches in Australia’s history as Turnbull had to satisfy both conservatives and rural-based members, who increased their proportion in the governing Coalition after it was just narrowly re-elected.