Anthony Albanese to send Richard Marles to NATO 75th anniversary summit after travel backlash
Frequent flyer Anthony Albanese has defended his decision not to attend the NATO summit despite Australia’s position as a global partner nation.
National
Don't miss out on the headlines from National. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hit back at criticism for not planning to personally attend the NATO summit this year, denying he turned down the trip after copping heat for his numerous overseas trips.
Mr Albanese snubbed an invitation to NATO’s 75th anniversary summit, despite the North Atlantic military alliance’s push to tighten co-operation with its Indo-Pacific partners.
The summit will be held next week in Washington DC, and the Biden administration had been expecting Mr Albanese to attend along with the leaders of NATO’s 32 member states and its other Indo-Pacific allies in Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles will attend in his place.
Appearing on ABC’s 7.30 on Tuesday, Mr Albanese fumed at the line of questioning from host Sarah Ferguson who reminded him that he attended NATO in both 2022 and 2023.
“No, we never accepted the invitation. We were considering what was before us,” Mr Albanese said.
“When I went to the first NATO Summit, it was an opportunity for the first time to meet many world leaders.”
Mr Albanese said he also went to NATO last year because he was in the region anyway.
“When I went to the NATO summit that was held in Lithuania, I went via Germany to sign a billion dollar deal for manufacturing.”
The Prime Minister took aim directly at opposition leader Peter Dutton when Ferguson pointed out other global partner nations were sending their leaders.
“You know what I find extraordinary?” the Prime Minister said.
“Is that Peter Dutton, who moved a motion in the parliament last year, saying that – demanding that I not go to APEC, where Australia is a member, where we are a founding member of APEC and needed to participate in that forum, as opposed to NATO, where for a lot of the NATO Summit, as an observer country, we’re not there.
“We’re not in the room with the NATO members when that takes place.”
Mr Albanese said the decision to send the deputy prime minister was made “a while ago” and that Liberal Prime Ministers Morrison, Abbott and Turnbull all sent cabinet members rather than personally attend NATO.
A spokeswoman for Mr Marles said his attendance “underscores Australia’s commitment to advocate for our region’s strategic priorities and the upholding of the global rules-based order, while advancing Australia’s security, economic and trade agenda”.
The decision marks the Prime Minister’s latest attempt to rein in his overseas travel after criticism of his frequent trips crescendoed late last year, although his presence had been expected at the NATO summit which he attended in each of the past two years.
It means Mr Albanese will also miss the chance to meet the winner of this week’s UK election, with Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer the overwhelming favourite to end 14 years of Conservative Party rule and replace Rishi Sunak as prime minister.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said it would be a “dereliction of duty” for Mr Albanese to skip the summit unless he had a “very, very compelling reason”.
“He should be reconsidering this position and making sure that he is there,” Senator Birmingham said.
“For our Prime Minister not to be there is really failing in terms of meeting up to the national security responsibilities of the Prime Minister.”
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said last month that he was excited for the leaders of Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand to join NATO’s members, given “the Indo-Pacific is more linked to Europe than ever before”.
A senior NATO official had revealed the invitation to Mr Albanese in February and said at the time that it was expected it would be accepted.
In a briefing on the summit last week, US Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien said that the “security concerns faced in the Indo-Pacific are very similar to those that are faced” in the North Atlantic, amid China’s increasing military aggression.
“We anticipate the opportunity to share views on those subjects but also to build up the habit of co-operation and the practical areas of collaboration between NATO and our Indo-Pacific partners,” he said.
The summit comes 75 years after NATO was created as a collective security system in the aftermath of World War II. Sweden and Finland have recently joined, and Mr O’Brien said he expected this month’s summit to produce an agreement on “a bridge to membership for Ukraine into NATO” as it continued to fight back against Russia’s illegal invasion.
Mr Albanese was last year forced to fend off criticism as he took four overseas trips in the month after the Voice referendum was defeated, taking his tally to 18 since he came to power.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called on him to cancel his November trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, saying he was “flying off overseas again when he should be staying in this country”.
But the Prime Minister said he had not “been on overseas holidays” and that “part of the job is to represent Australia” on the world stage.
Originally published as Anthony Albanese to send Richard Marles to NATO 75th anniversary summit after travel backlash
Cop allegedly slashed during raid
A police officer has been rushed to hospital after he was allegedly slashed with a “ring knife” during an arrest.
Why Labor fears ‘Ratimas’ in the ranks
Labor is finding out that, for many Muslim voters, just being better than the Liberal Party on Palestine isn’t good enough, writes James Campbell.