PM Scott Morrison says he “intends” to visit US for G7 summit

The PM said he “intends” to travel to the US to meet world leaders at a summit hosted by Donald Trump despite the threat of coronavirus.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he fully intends to visit the United States for a summit hosted by President Donald Trump despite the surging number of coronavirus cases there.

The PM also backed two of his ministers who will travel to the US this week for defence talks.

Talking to reporters in Sydney today, Morrison said he will travel to the planned G7 Summit in Washington DC in September.

“I intend to visit Washington myself should the G7-plus meeting go ahead.

“These are important opportunities for Australia. It would be extraordinary if we didn’t seek to attend these meetings,” he said.

“Our alliance with the United States is the bedrock of Australia’s defence strategy. So would it be highly irregular for us not to seek to take every opportunity for those meetings to be held face-to-face and I’m very pleased that they are proceeding on that basis”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today he “intends” to head to the US for September’s G7 meeting. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw.

The annual G7 meetings bring together seven of the biggest industrialised countries for face-to-face talks. The G7 nations are the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK as well as the European Union.

Leaders from all those countries attend to discuss trade, defence and other issue such as climate change.

In June, US President Donald Trump invited Morrison along with the leaders of Brazil, South Korea and India to also attend. As such, it has been called the “G7-plus” meeting.

The summit was planned to be held in May but was postponed due to the pandemic.

“In the foreign affairs space there are many issues that Australia has an active interest in at the moment and we are keen to pursue those with as many like-minded countries as we possibly can,” Morrison said of the planned summit.

The G7 Summit will be hosted by US President Donald Trump. Picture: JIM WATSON / AFP.

Foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Linda Reynolds are due to travel to the US this week for the annual Australia-United States Ministerial defence talks, dubbed AUSMIN.

This trip has also come under scrutiny not only for going ahead in person while COVID-19 continues to infect large numbers in the US but also because it could antagonise China when tensions are already high.

“I don’t think there’s anything extraordinary about the Australian foreign minister and defence minister attending AUSMIN talks face-to-face with our US counterparts,” Morrison said today.

Last week SBS reported the two ministers would travel to the US in a small delegation of nine people and fly on a private jet to minimise the risk of transmission.

They will also wear protective equipment, practice social distancing and self-isolate upon their return to Australia.