By Kirsty Needham and Lewis Jackson

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he spoke to Donald Trump on Thursday after the Republican’s U.S. election victory, as Australia’s U.S. ambassador deleted comments he made previously made about Trump, saying they did not reflect the views of the Australian government.

Albanese said he spoke with Trump on Thursday morning about security ties, including the AUKUS deal, which will see Australia buy US nuclear submarines over the next decade and develop a new class of propulsion submarines nuclear with the United States and Great Britain.

“We spoke about the importance of the Alliance and the strength of the Australian-US relationship on security, AUKUS, trade and investment,” Albanese wrote.

During Trump’s first term as president, Australia’s conservative liberal government became more hawkish toward China and worked to maintain U.S. engagement in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China, notably through the Quad group composed of India, Japan, the United States and Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Thursday the center-left Labor government was confident in its alliance with the United States, its largest security partner.

Wong said she met with Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state in the previous Trump administration, on the campaign trail, and that there was bipartisan support for AUKUS.

“The United States is our main strategic partner. We share very, very clear strategic objectives,” she told the Today show. “We both want a stable region, a peaceful region, and there is bipartisan support for AUKUS, which is a key part of that.”

One potential problem concerns the relationship between the new administration and Australia’s ambassador to Washington, former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Rudd had previously made disparaging comments about Trump in his capacity as head of a US-based think tank, according to a statement on his personal website.

“Out of respect for the office of President of the United States and following the election of President Trump, Ambassador Rudd has removed these past comments from his personal website and social media,” the statement said.

Rudd wanted to “eliminate the possibility that such comments would be misinterpreted as reflecting his positions as ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian government”, the statement added.

Among the deleted comments, Rudd had described Trump in 2020 as “the most destructive president in history”.

Trump, when asked about Rudd’s comments in a British television interview in March, said Rudd was “not the brightest bulb” and “mean.”

“He won’t be there long if that’s the case,” Trump said.

Wong said she supports Rudd’s ability to work with a Republican administration.

Rudd served as chief executive of the Asia Society think tank in New York until 2023, when he was appointed ambassador.

(Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; editing by Lincoln Feast.)