Julie Bishop, has put the U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on notice this country will not accept any signs of appeasement towards Russia by the Trump Administration ahead of the historic first meeting between the two this week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Bishop is to meet with President Trump's latest foreign affairs supremo at AUSMIN in San Francisco on Tuesday.
And, in a clear sign that the Turnbull Government is far from happy with Mr Trump's vacillating, and almost indecipherable, messages in the wake of the Helsinki Summit, she has said America has to hold the line.
Her words, which included demands the U.S. "should not reward Russia for their bad behaviour" go much further than Malcolm Turnbull's initial defence of the colourful and self-contradictory U.S. leader as a "patriot" last week.
Trump had been criticised by Democrats and Republicans alike, with some going so far as to accuse him of treason - literally "giving succour to the enemy" - after apparently taking President Putin's word over the advice of his own security agency heads on whether or not the Soviets had hacked the 2016 Presidential election.
That call, which led to a potentially embarrassing about face by the White House within 24-hours, has been compared to former Labor leader, Doc Evatt's rejections of claims the Russians were spying in Australia in the wake of the Petrov affair in the 1950s. The Soviet Government had told him this wasn't so.
While that gaffe went on to destroy Evatt's career, and played a significant role in keeping Labor out of office until the 1970s, Trump has avoided serious consequences so far.
Ms Bishop's position would have been significantly strengthened by the public backlash against Liberal backbencher, Craig Kelly's, foot-in-mouth foray into the field of foreign affairs when he suggested that when it came to the loss of MH17 Australia should let bygones be bygones last week.
Her nuanced position is that Trump is placing too much emphasis on developing some form of rapport with the Russian leader.
"I am concerned that in the President's aim to engage with Russia, as the President should, Russia will seek to escape responsibility for its past behaviour," she said.
"My message for Secretary Pompeo is we will continue to need 100 per cent support from the U.S., particularly through the UN Security Council."
Ms Bishop cited the downing of MH17, the annexation of Crimea, Russia's action in the eastern Ukraine, its indifference to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its own people, the likely Russian involvement in the nerve toxin attacks in England and the growing evidence of state sponsored cyber attacks as key issues.
"We remain committed to seeking justice for the (283) victims of MH17. We have attributed state responsibility to Russia," she said.
Her remarks are intended to remind Trump, through his senior foreign policy advisors, that if the price of a good relationship with Russia is turning a blind eye to its long list of misdeeds then that isn't a relationship at all.
If, as it now appears, Russia is tired of being treated as a rogue state, it is the one that needs to do the heavy lifting by acknowleding what it has done wrong and taking action to make amends.