WASHINGTON: The United States expects smooth relations with Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott, but it remains to be seen if he can match his predecessor’s pally rapport with President Barack Obama.

Abbott, a conservative who was born London and has spoken of the importance of the “Anglosphere,” led his coalition to victory over the Labour Party of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat and China expert.

Rudd, who faced criticism at home over his style and his party’s internecine fighting, was arguably one of the foreign leaders closest to the usually reserved Obama.

Kurt Campbell, who was the State Department’s top official on East Asia during Obama’s first term, said that Rudd left “almost ocean-vessel-size shoes to be filled” in helping the United States think strategically.

“Despite personal foibles and a complex relationship in Australia, I think in many respects Kevin Rudd has been the most important strategic thinker in Asia in the last generation,” said Campbell, a key force in Obama’s “pivot” of putting a greater US focus on Asia.

Rudd may have had more influence in shaping Washington’s policies in Asia than any foreigner since modern Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan Yew during the Vietnam War era, Campbell told a conference.

“He helped us join the East Asia Summit, he helped us think about the fact that the defining feature of modern international relations is China’s arrival on the global scene and every aspect of our diplomacy has to be recreated and re-crafted with that in mind,” Campbell said.

Campbell was quick to say that the United States expected to work well with Abbott. Australia is one of the oldest US allies and has joined Washington in every major war including the controversial conflicts in Iraq and Vietnam.

Obama and Abbott, in a telephone call after the election, shared concerns about Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

Officials said that Obama and Abbott also discussed moving ahead with a 2011 plan for the United States to move more than 2,500 Marines to the northern city of Darwin by 2016-17, perhaps the most visible Australian support for the US pivot to Asia.

A State Department official said that the United States had worked well with Australian leaders across the political spectrum.

“Our assessment is that Australia’s fundamental national interests haven’t changed, regardless of who’s in power. Obviously there will be differences in the way they approach policy,” the official said.

“I don’t expect there to be any significant challenges to continuing to work very closely with Australia on the way we approach both bilateral (relations) and global issues, things like Syria, energy and climate change,” he said.—AFP