PM should learn from Starmer

It is unfortunate for Australia but understandable that Donald Trump felt compelled to leave the G7 summit before his promised meeting with Anthony Albanese. The Middle East crisis demanded the President’s presence in the Situation Room in Washington.

It is imperative, however, that the Prime Minister secures another date for his long-delayed initial meeting with Mr Trump that will enable Mr Albanese to build on positive signs for AUKUS and tariffs that emerged from the summit. As Liberal senator Dave Sharma, our former ambassador to Israel, said, it is not good that almost six months since Mr Trump returned to the White House, Mr Albanese, as the leader of a key US ally, has not yet had a face-to-face meeting with the President.

But the signs for Mr Albanese from Mr Trump’s meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, at which they signed a UK-US trade deal and held a joint media conference, were encouraging. Sir Keir said there was “no doubt” Mr Trump was fully supportive of the AUKUS pact, despite the review being conducted by the US Defence Department. That was “very positive”, as Mr Albanese said.

Asked why Britain had succeeded while other countries so far had failed on trade deals, Mr Trump said “because I like them”. That underlines the need for Mr Albanese to establish a strong personal relationship with Mr Trump. It is what Sir Keir did when he had the nous to become an early visitor to the White House soon after Mr Trump’s re-election.

Mr Albanese now will face extreme pressure, as Geoff Chambers reports, to ramp up Australia’s defence spending. Ahead of meeting Mr Trump at the White House in February, Sir Keir announced he would cut his foreign aid budget to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP from April 2027, with an ambition to hit 3 per cent in a second term. Australia’s defence budget is expected to reach just 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033-34.

Mr Trump’s White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky showed the US President is unpredictable. His view at the G7 that Vladimir Putin, with his appalling record in Ukraine, could be a peacemaker in the Iran-Israel conflict was as oddball as it gets.

Putin is wholly on Iran’s side after signing a 20-year treaty of friendship and supplying Tehran with weapons it is using against Israel. He also is relying on Iran for help in his murderous war on Ukraine. Mr Trump also said Russia should be invited back into the G7, a grouping of “democratic” nations, from which it was rightly expelled in 2014 after its illegal annexation of Crimea.

Given the importance of AUKUS and tariffs, Mr Albanese hopefully will have an opportunity to meet Mr Trump when the Prime Minister travels to the US in September for the UN leaders’ summit.