Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will meet senior officials from the Clinton and Trump camps in the US to gain insights into how presidential election campaign policy changes could affect Australia.
Ms Bishop says Australia is closely monitoring instances where each campaign had signalled directional shifts including on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership deal and military engagement in Syria and Iraq.
"We are obviously seeking to test these hypotheses and what it will mean for Australia," she said on Friday.
Ms Bishop is in Washington DC to also attend a special conference on oceans that US Secretary of State John Kerry will host.
She was invited to attend as an "ocean champion".
Australia is set to allocate $6 million in funding for a fisheries management project to support livelihoods for more than 7000 people in 28 villages in the Pacific.
