Anthony Albanese to lobby US Congress to back Joe Biden’s bill for AUKUS, Israel and Ukraine

The PM will urge Joe Biden to ‘remain focused on the Indo-Pacific’ as he launches a foreign blitz headlined by meetings with the US President in Washington and Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leaves for Washington with his partner, Jodie Haydon, on Sunday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Anthony Albanese will lobby US congress members to pass Joe Biden’s bill promising billions for the AUKUS submarine program and military aid for Israel and Ukraine, as he launches a four-week international blitz headlined by meetings with the US President in Washington and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Mr Albanese on Sunday confirmed he would be the first prime minister in seven years to visit China after Beijing agreed to review trade sanctions on Australian wine following the government’s decision allowing Chinese-firm Landbridge to continue operating the Port of Darwin.

Mr Albanese, who will meet Mr Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and attend the Shanghai International Import Expo between November 4 and November 7, flew out to Washington on Sunday for an official state visit and dinner at the White House.

Amid escalating wars in the Middle East and Ukraine and ahead of high-level meetings with Mr Biden and top US officials, Mr Albanese said he would urge the US President at their ninth meeting since the election to “remain focused on the Indo-Pacific ­region” as a counterbalance to Beijing. “We do have strategic competition in this region,” he said.

The AUKUS submarine program is facing resistance from some congressional Republicans and the US House of Represen­tatives is still unable to function because of divisions over the election of a new Speaker.

Despite the chaos in Washington, Mr Albanese said he would lobby for the passage of the $US105bn military aid bill that includes $3.4bn to bolster US submarine production to help promised sales to Australia.

Hours before departing Sydney for the US, Mr Albanese said: “President Biden’s agenda is one that we support and we will be urging support for all of the legislation that is required for AUKUS.”

The Washington trip begins the most significant month of diplomacy since Mr Albanese took office. The meetings with Mr Biden and Mr Xi are immediately followed by the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands, where Australia is expected to make new climate change pledges in support of its joint-Pacific bid to host a UN Climate Change conference.

Mr Albanese will also attend the APEC leaders meeting in San Francisco later in November and is likely to go to the COP28 Climate Change conference in Dubai in early December.

During his four-day visit to the US, Mr Albanese will announce new agreements on climate change and critical minerals and he is expected to unveil Australia’s first major response to the Biden administration’s $US3 trillion Inflation Reduction Act, which focuses heavily on clean energy investments.

“I’ll be having important meetings with members of congress and Senate about the legislation that’s required to ensure that AUKUS can continue to forge ahead, but also so that Australia can benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act as well,” he said, referring to the Biden administration’s trillion-dollar plus subsidy package for US industry, largely for clean energy projects

Against a backdrop of an imminent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza that will possibly overshadow his visit, Mr Albanese will attend the official White House state dinner on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) hosted by the President and first lady Jill Biden.

Mr Albanese will also meet Mr Biden’s top-ranking officials in the cabinet room, including Vice-President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury chief Janet Yellen.

Mr Albanese was expected to fly into Joint Base Andrews in Maryland early on Monday afternoon (AEDT), where he will be greeted by ambassador Kevin Rudd and wife Therese Rein.

The state visit is the first for an Australian prime minister since Donald Trump hosted Scott Morrison in 2019.

Mr Albanese arrives in the US capital with congress in its third week of gridlock from Republican infighting that has left the House of Representatives without a Speaker since October 5.

Democratic congressman Joe Courtney, the co-chair of the Friends of Australia Caucus, said the infighting would likely prevent Mr Albanese from addressing congress.“The majority party’s inability to either settle on a Speaker or reach out to Democrats for a bipartisan path forward will likely prevent the Prime Minister from giving a joint address to the congress, which the Australian people deserve,” he said.

The Australian understands Mr Albanese’s arrival in Washington ahead of his visit to Beijing is not merely symbolic.

With US-China relations still tense, Mr Albanese will discuss his China visit with Mr Biden, US cabinet secretaries and other senior national security advisers to ensure he is fully briefed on Washington’s positions ahead of meetings with Mr Xi and Mr Li in Beijing.

Mr Albanese will meet Mr Xi and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the Albanese government’s decision on Friday to allow Chinese company Landbridge to continue its lease over the Port of Darwin is understood to have shocked many in the nat­ional security community.

The decision, viewed as a deal with Beijing to win concessions on trade bans and secure a meeting with Mr Xi, was made without a press conference or any minister including Mr Albanese attaching their name to it.

Mr Albanese outsourced the announcement to his department.

The timing of his Beijing visit, which is coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s historic 1973 trip to China, has been viewed by some security ­figures as a concession to the ­Chinese Communist Party’s ­legacy-­building “obsession with anni­versaries”.

Former ambassador to the US Joe Hockey said America could request more help from Australia in relation to both Ukraine and Israel, following Mr Biden’s request to congress last week for extra money for military aid and submarine production.

“There’s always ask and give. Anthony Albanese will be at the coalface of discussions about the future of the Middle East – all the ceremony and warm embrace that everyone sees there obscures the important and many serious discussions,” Mr Hockey told The Australian.

His successor in Washington, Arthur Sinodinos, said the Israel crisis could distract attention from the Australian visit. “The mood in Washington is very much preoccupation, particularly over the next few days, with what Israel will do,” he said.

Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese in May. Picture: AFP

There were hopes Mr Biden’s request for extra submarine funding would mollify Republican concerns about the capacity of the US industrial base to provide Australia with boats starting in the early 2030s, as agreed under the AUKUS pact.

But on Friday (Saturday AEDT), Republican senator Roger Wicker, who had held up earlier Senate moves to endorse the submarine transfers, said the Biden administration funding proposals were a “welcome start” and a “first step”.

“There is still much work to be done with the administration and Pentagon to expand our industrial base and add the necessary attack submarines to prevent conflict on the seas, but this package signals a positive first step toward that goal,” he added.

Former US ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse told The Australian that legislative changes to support AUKUS were “always going to be difficult”, recalling some of the difficulties he had when Australia purchased US F-35s. “It’s one of the most entrenched bureaucracies in the US government,” Mr Culvahouse said, referring to parts of the State Department that deal with technology transfer.