Silver lining for Albanese despite months-long wait for next Trump meeting
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was musing about being match fit for his first face-to-face talks with United States President Donald Trump, the White House press secretary was drafting a tweet that would dash any chance of the meeting going ahead. Albanese held a press conference late afternoon Monday (local time) in Calgary, the Canadian city where the guests who aren't members of the G7 leaders' summit have been parked for satellite talks away from the main event. The G7 leaders were at a Kananaskis resort, at least an hour's drive away, for their top-level defence, security and trade discussions. During the media event, Albanese was still very much expecting the bilateral meeting with Trump to go ahead. He'd spoken about prepping seriously for all international meetings, pointed to the gruelling daily press conferences in the hothouse of the election campaign and his approach to speaking to more than just "friendly" media. He revealed he was in contact with "The Shark" — Australian golfing great Greg Norman, who has a close relationship with Trump — in the past week.
Albanese also said he had sought counsel from Australia's US ambassador Kevin Rudd, paying tribute to his "extraordinary capacity in terms of his skills and knowledge of the United States system". But despite praising that diplomatic prowess it appears no-one in the Australian diplomatic corps was given a heads-up that Trump was preparing to fire up Air Force One a day early and cancel tomorrow's meeting because of the escalating conflict in the Middle East, as Israel and Iran continue to trade strikes . Leavitt declared the trip to the G7 a success. "Much was accomplished, but because of what's going on in the Middle East, President Trump will be leaving tonight after dinner with Heads of State," the post read.
Albanese had been preparing his diplomatic brief for the planned talks in Kananaskis on Tuesday (local time). It would have been the last meeting before Trump returned to Washington. The meeting was only formally confirmed in recent days and nails were bitten to the quick on the Australian side in anticipation. Albanese is still expected to leave the flat plains of Calgary tomorrow and make the journey to the G7's main event in the Rocky Mountains for a series of other meetings with world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and UK leader Keir Starmer. That meeting could now happen in Washington around the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York which Albanese is expected to attend in September.
There is some consolation for the prime minister from this highly dramatic chain of events. During a joint press conference in Kananaskis with Trump and Starmer, an American reporter asked whether the AUKUS deal, which is between the US, UK and Australia, was proceeding despite the Pentagon's review . The pair were in agreement that while reviews were sensible, the alliance was strong and it was a clear indication the nuclear submarine plans remain firmly on the table. Despite not getting his own taste of the Trumpian world in person yet, Albanese still secured some clarity on one of the nation's most important and expensive joint defence and national security ventures. SBS News' chief political correspondent Anna Henderson is in Canada covering the G7 summit.
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