US President Donald Trump has vowed to honour the deal with Australia for the US to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus Island during a phone conversation with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday morning, Fairfax Media understands.
Mr Trump told Mr Turnbull during the 25-minute call that his administration would continue to honour the arrangement, which the Prime Minister struck with the Obama administration but which came into question because of Mr Trump's hardline statements on accepting refugees.
It is not yet clear how many of the roughly 2000 asylum-seekers held on Nauru and Manus Island will be resettled in the US.
Under the agreement with the Obama administration, US officials have already visited Nauru to conduct a first round of interviews and were due to begin work on Manus Island in mid-February. It was expected that details of the deal between Australia and the US would not be nailed down until the second half of the year.
News that Mr Trump won't overturn his predecessor's arrangement with Australia puts to rest months of concern about the future of the deal that could finally resolve the plight of many of the refugees on Nauru and Manus Island.
An executive order released over the weekend by Mr Trump includes a four-month pause on all refugee arrivals, a three-month ban on entry by citizens from seven countries of terrorism concern including Iran, Iraq and Syria, and an indefinite halt on all refugees from Syria.
The new US President has also ordered officials to prioritise refugees who are fleeing persecution as members of religious minorities in their home countries, which would most obviously apply to Christians and other non-Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia.
That order, however, also stated that senior US officials can "admit individuals to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis" including to "enable the United States to conform its conduct to a pre-existing international agreement".
It is not certain that the US will take all confirmed refugees from Australia's offshore detention system. Mr Turnbull has said the United Nations' refugee agency would be responsible for assessing the refugee claims. That agency has made clear it might reassess people on Nauru and Manus Island who have already been denied refugee status and could also take into account the hardship they have been through while seeking asylum.
Mr Turnbull has also said the deal would give priority to women, children and families. Those groups are housed on Nauru while Manus Island holds single men.
The US will conduct its own security vetting of applicants and could regard single men as a greater risk.
In their first conversation since the businessman was sworn in as US President, Mr Turnbull and Mr Trump also discussed the war against the so-called Islamic State and agreed to work together on global security including in the Asia-Pacific region. They also talked about their shared interest in stopping irregular migration of people seeking asylum.
Mr Turnbull's office is yet to comment on the 25-minute long conversation between the two leaders. A two paragraph statement from the White House said both leaders "emphasised the enduring strength and closeness of the US-Australia relationship that is critical for peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and globally".
Education Minister Simon Birmingham told reporters he did not know the details of the conversation between Mr Turnbull and Mr Trump but said the two countries had "long been close allies and have worked co-operatively on a range of agreements and I'm very confident, the government's very confident, we will continue to work co-operatively on agreements in the future".