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, while Australia’s ambassador to the U.S. deleted comments he had previously made about Trump, saying they were not reflects the view 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 nuclear-powered submarines with the US and Britain.

“We talked about the importance of the Alliance and the strength of the Australia-US relationship in security, AUKUS, trade and investment,” Albanese wrote.

During Trump’s first term as president, Australia’s Liberal Conservative government became more aggressive towards China and worked to maintain US involvement in the Indo-Pacific region as a counter to China, including through India’s Quad group, Japan, USA and Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday that the centre-left Labor government is confident in its alliance with the United States, its biggest security partner.

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

“The United States is our main strategic partner. We share very, very clear strategic goals,” she told the Today program. “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 is the relationship between the incoming administration and Australia’s ambassador to Washington, former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Rudd has previously made disparaging comments about Trump in his capacity as head of a US 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 now removed these previous comments from his personal website and social media channels,” the statement said.

Rudd wanted to “eliminate the possibility that such comments could be misconstrued as reflecting his positions as an ambassador and, by extension, the views of the Australian government”, it added.

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

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

“He’s not going to be there long if that’s the case,” Trump said.

Wong said he supported Rudd’s ability to work with a Republican administration.

Rudd was 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.)