Despite concerns that newly elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lacks foreign policy experience, he has spent his first days emphasizing that his government will re-engage with the Pacific region and work closely with the United States, Japan, and India to help counter China’s growing influence.
Albanese and his Labor Party won a majority in the May 21 election, returning the party to power for the first time in nine years. Albanese found himself on a plane to Tokyo on his first full day in office in order to attend a "Quad" meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
His foreign minister, Penny Wong, who accompanied him to Tokyo, then headed off to Fiji as part of what Albanese says is an effort to rebuild relationships with the Pacific islands now being courted by China.