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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week begins an international mission that takes in the United Nations General Assembly, a forum on the world’s climate and a meeting on Australia’s social media laws. It is hoped Albanese will meet US President Donald Trump. But the evidence of the past eight months of Trump’s second term suggests nothing is set in stone in terms of face-to-face meetings between the two leaders.
What is confirmed is that on Monday, Albanese will attend a conference on Palestine, at which Australia will formally recognise its statehood. On Wednesday, he will for the first time address the UN General Assembly on climate change. Under the Paris Agreement, nations have to set new targets every five years and submit them before the UN’s next climate summit in Brazil in November. Australia’s government announced its new target last week.
President Donald Trump and King Charles speak during the state banquet in Windsor Castle, England.Credit: AP
Albanese will also attend a forum with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Australia’s social media laws for children.
Before Albanese flies to Britain to have talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, all eyes will be on whether a not insignificant event has taken place: meeting the US president.
While there have been phone calls between the two, a meeting has proved elusive (witness the aborted meeting at the G7 summit in Canada in June, when Trump had to leave to deal with the Iran-Israel war). Trump has met the leaders of Germany, Britain, France, Japan, India, Russia, Israel and Liberia. If the US president and Albanese meet, it’s now likely to be a brief encounter rather than a formal meeting.
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There is much to discuss. First, AUKUS. Trump was reminded of the value of the deal last week by King Charles at a ceremony at Windsor Castle. Given the Pentagon is reviewing the program, the US defence undersecretary Elbridge Colby is sceptical of the AUKUS pact’s worth, and the hundreds of billions of dollars Australia is committing to it, an indication in person from Trump to the prime minister would not only be invaluable but crucial in the direction Australia should be steering its defence priorities.
China must also loom large in the discussion, and as a tangent to that, the Quad agreement between Australia, India, Japan and the United States. The Quad is a counterfoil to China’s military and commercial interests. However, it has been placed on shaky ground through the open trade warfare between the US and India over Trump’s imposition of harsh tariffs on the latter. The ripple effect of this could be the moving away of India from the Quad to China.
Of course, the best way to thicken the relationship and get traction on these pressing issues is to meet person to person. All we have at present to suggest this will occur is Trump last week telling ABC journalist John Lyons, who dared ask the president questions about his personal business dealings in an on-camera exchange, “You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”
