Caroline Kennedy arrived in Australia Friday to take up her post as US ambassador, vowing to end a period of US “absence” in a region increasingly influenced by China. With Washington stepping up diplomatic engagement across the South Pacific to counter growing Chinese influence, slain president John F. Kennedy’s sole surviving child touched down in Sydney to present her credentials. “There is a big agenda and I can’t wait to get started,” she said, effectively ending a stretch of more than 500 days in which the United States had no ambassador in the country. “I think everyone feels that it is unfortunate that it is taking so long to confirm ambassadors,” she said, referring to the now laborious and fraught process of the US Senate confirming key diplomatic appointments. (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/caroline-kennedy-arrives-in-australia-to-take-up-ambassador-post/ar-AAZQbmC) Kennedy, a former US ambassador to Japan, hailed moves to open three new embassies in the Pacific Islands, while admitting “there has been a lot of absence.”