Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd has been named as Australia’s next ambassador to the US.

Dr Rudd’s appointment was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday.

“Dr Rudd brings unmatched experience to the role,” they said in a joint statement.

“He has served as prime minister, foreign minister, held prominent academic roles and worked extensively in the United States.”

Dr Rudd was Australia’s 26th prime minister from 2007-2010 and took the job again in 2013 before Labor lost government. He was foreign minister between 2010 and 2012.

He was ousted as prime minister by Julia Gillard, who was then herself ousted by Dr Rudd.

Tweet from @MrKRudd

Dr Rudd will replace former Liberal minister Arthur Sinodinos, whose term in Washington ends early in 2023. Tuesday’s announcement came after he was quizzed in May – while campaigning for Labor – about the possibility of an ambassadorship if Mr Albanese won the federal election.

“The answer to that is, no,” he told a Sky News reporter outside a Melbourne polling booth.

In a statement shortly after Mr Albanese’s announcement on Tuesday, Dr Rudd said he was “greatly honoured by the Australian government’s decision” to offer him the role.

As head of the Asia Society, Dr Rudd has a strong knowledge of the US, as well as China, and has extensive links to the global community.

He has also been critical of former US president Donald Trump. But in his statement, Dr Rudd said he had built relationships across the political spectrum.

“Over the past decade, I have had the pleasure of building relationships with Republicans and Democrats across politics and have developed close personal ties with American business, civil society and the media,” he said.

“[Australia’s] national interest continues to be served … by the deepest and most effective strategic engagement of the United States in our region.”

Asked about the appointment, Mr Albanese said Dr Rudd would be an “outstanding” representative in Washington and would conduct himself in a way that would bring credit to Australia.

“Kevin Rudd will be seen in the United States as a very significant appointment – I’m appointing a former prime minister,” Mr Albanese said.

“I am very pleased that Kevin Rudd is prepared to do this. He certainly doesn’t need to do this.

“He’s doing it out of a part of what he sees as his service obligation to the country that he loves. I am sure that he will serve very well.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham urged Dr Rudd to back the AUKUS partnership in his new role.

When the then Coalition government announced AUKUS in 2021, Dr Rudd said it had not explained “why it is technically and strategically necessary to move to nuclear-powered submarines”. He also accused the government of “deception” for its treatment of France, over submarines that nation was building to the Australian Defence Force.

In an article for French newspaper Le Monde, Dr Rudd described AUKUS as an “extraordinary foreign policy debacle”.

On Tuesday, Senator Birmingham said moving ahead with AUKUS would “require the unqualified support and attention of our ambassador”.

“The next few years in the Australia-America relationship are as important as any in recent times, as we work together to deliver upon the AUKUS partnership and respond to the strategic challenges of our times,” he said.

“They will require discipline, sensitivity and drive. AUKUS is essential to our national security interests and will be a most challenging undertaking.”

He said Mr Albanese had “personally chosen a friend and confidante, a former parliamentary and ministerial colleague and someone in whom [he] clearly has faith and confidence”.

“Above all else, the Coalition looks to [Dr] Rudd … to deliver on Australia’s national interests first and foremost,” Senator Birmingham said.

Mr Albanese said it was “no accident” the government had appointed two former foreign ministers as ambassadors to Britain and US as the AUKUS alliance progressed.

In September, former Labor minister Stephen Smith was announced as Australia’s next High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. He will start in the role next year.

Mr Sinodinos congratulated Dr Rudd on Twitter and said there was “plenty to get on with” as the US-Australia relationship went from strength to strength.

Dr Rudd said he looked forward to continuing the work of his predecessor to strengthen the bonds between Australia and the US.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull – who rejected Dr Rudd’s bid for the role of United Nations Secretary-General in 2016 – congratulated the new ambassador and said it was a “great appointment”.

Dr Rudd expects to begin his new role in March.

Mr Albanese plans to visit the US next year.

-with AAP