Albanese ‘expects’ to meet Trump next week at G7

Anthony Albanese looks to have swerved around what would have been a very awkward snub from Donald Trump at the G7 summit next week.

Anthony Albanese has said he “expects” to meet Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada next week.

The prime minister made the announcement in the US city of Seattle on his way to the meeting of the world’s most advanced economies which begins on Sunday near Calgary.

He also said in Seattle that Australia will be unlikely to “pay a role” in the military conflict unfolding between Israel and Iran.

Mr Albanese’s confirmation of a meeting avoids what would could have been a humiliating snub given he would be at the same event as Mr Trump but has never met the US president in person.

For weeks there has been no confirmation of a meeting between the two leaders. Indeed, American officials have even scolded Australia in the last week for not spending enough, in their view, on defence and for sanctioning two far right Israeli politicians. The US also announced a review of the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact which the PM has suggested is to be expected but is still unwelcome in Canberra.

“I do expect to meet the president on the sidelines of the G7 in Canada on Tuesday,” Mr Albanese said at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle where a $20 billion investment by the tech giant in Australia was also announced.

Anthony Albanese confirms meeting with US President Donald Trump on G7 sidelines

‘Discussion as friends should’

“Obviously there are issues that the US president is dealing with at the moment but I expect that we will be able to have a constructive engagement and I look forward to building on the constructive phone conversations that we’ve been able to have on three occasions”.

“We’ll raise tariffs we'll raise the importance of AUKUS and we’ll have a discussion as two friends should do”.

Canada is hosting the G7 summit of it and the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Leaders from South Africa, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, as well as Australia, have also been invited.

The US has imposed a 10 per cent “baseline” tariff on Australian goods, 25 per cent on aluminium and 50 per cent on steel.

Mr Albanese did not promise that the 10 per cent tariff would be nixed for Australia even though he pointed out that the US sells more than twice the amount of goods to Australia than Australia sells to America.

“The 10 per cent baseline has been applied across the entire world and what I won’t do, which is what some have done formerly in politics, is make great declarations prior to any meeting taking place.

“I will put forward Australia’s interests respectfully because it is also in the interests of the United Sates for Australia to be treated appropriately”.

Notably, the UK’s deal with the US saw 10 per cent tariffs remain in place for most goods despite Britain, like Australia, selling less to the US than it imported.

Anthony Albanese and AWS CEO Matt Garman at The Spheres, at Amazon’s Seattle HQ, on 14 June. Picture: Benedict Brook.

Australia “not part” of Middle East conflict

The PM said the escalation of attacks in the Middle East was a “volatile situation”.

Asked if Australia has had any requests to play a role in the Israel-Iran conflict, Mr Albanese said there was no expectation.

“As you'd expect we continue to monitor but Australia does not play a role in this conflict”.

Amazon’s $20bn Aussie investment

Mr Albanese was in Seattle on Saturday, local time, to announce a multi billion investment by Amazon to build several new data centres in Melbourne and Sydney.

Data centres are crucial hubs for internet traffic. With the increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) meaning more centres are needed.

“It’s important for jobs, for economic growth and importantly for productivity,” the PM said at the Amazon Spheres building.

“We know that AI is important and this investment will support complex AI and supercomputing applications”.

Amazon Web Services CEO Matt Garman said the investment “deepens our long term commitment to support the growth and development of Australian organisations of all sizes”.

Amazon has flagged $20 billion as the headline figure for its Australian investment from now until 2029. However, it had already announced $13 billion of new funds for the five years from 2023 and some of that cash has already been spent. So the $20 billion announced on Saturday includes several billion dollars that has already been earmarked.

Originally published as Albanese ‘expects’ to meet Trump next week at G7