Trump awards Scott Morrison legion of merit for 'leadership in addressing global challenges'
Scott Morrison has been awarded a prestigious US military decoration for “leadership in addressing global challenges” and strengthening the Australia and United States partnership.
Donald Trump gave the legion of merit to Morrison, along with former and current leaders of US allies including Japan and India.
The awards to Morrison, Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi were presented by the US national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, on Monday evening Washington time.
The legion of merit is a US military decoration which is also conferred on military and political figures of foreign governments.
According to the official national security council Twitter account, Morrison’s award was “for his leadership in addressing global challenges and promoting collective security”.
It was accepted by the Australian ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, who said the US president had also recognised that Morrison had “strengthened the partnership between the United States and Australia”.
Morrison is not the first Australian recipient of the award. It has been awarded to, among others, former prime minister Robert Menzies, former chiefs of army Angus Campbell and David Morrison, and former chief of the defence force and current governor general David Hurley.
The awards for Indian prime minister Modi and former Japanese prime minister Abe were also accepted by those countries’ ambassadors.
Modi was praised for “elevating the US-India strategic partnership” while Abe was awarded “for his leadership and vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Since becoming prime minister in August 2018, Morrison has closely courted Trump, and was rewarded in September 2019 with a full ceremonial welcome on his US trip.
During that trip Morrison attended a Trump rally in Wapakoneta, Ohio and praised Trump’s political priorities, expressing a view that the pair “share a lot of the same views”.
Although friendly relations with the president of the US are generally considered a positive for the Australian prime minister, polling suggests most Australians would have voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Following Trump’s defeat in the November presidential election, Morrison joined other world leaders in congratulating Biden on the win.
The former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has accused Morrison of being “dazzled and duchessed” by Trump, warning that after Morrison went “full-in” with his US counterpart on foreign affairs and climate change, he now needs to change direction to avoid Australia being seen as a “Trump-lite refuge in the southern hemisphere”.
Since Biden’s election Australia has become increasingly isolated on climate change policy, as the US pursues net zero emissions which Morrison has resisted nominating as Australia’s official emissions reduction target.
Australia is also embroiled in a trade dispute with China partly motivated by Morrison’s call for World Health Organization inspectors to gain “weapons inspector” style powers to investigate the origin of Covid-19, a move in line with Trump’s harsh rhetoric on China’s handling of coronavirus.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/22/trump-awards-scott-morrison-legion-of-merit-for-leadership-in-addressing-global-challenges
https://twitter.com/WHNSC/status/1341154229537435650
https://twitter.com/A_Sinodinos/status/1341216915147075589
https://twitter.com/WHNSC/status/1341151618306363393