Crucial face-to-face with Donald Trump? It’ll be a journey to the Quad summit
Anthony Albanese has pointed to a Quad leaders meeting that could be months away for his possible first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump, as Julie Bishop cast doubt on how long Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd will last.
Anthony Albanese has pointed to a Quad leaders meeting that could be months away for his possible first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump, as former foreign minister Julie Bishop cast doubt on how long Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd will last.
As concerns grow that the Prime Minister has not moved fast enough to develop a connection with the incoming US president, former ambassador Joe Hockey said Mr Albanese and Peter Dutton should consider offering Mr Trump a state visit to Australia.
While Mr Trump prefers bilateral meetings over multilateral forums, Mr Albanese referred to the Quad leaders summit this year between Australia, the US, India and Japan when asked when he anticipated his first face-to-face meeting with the president-elect and whether there was an upcoming summit he might attend.
No date has been locked in for this year’s Quad summit, after US President Joe Biden hosted the leaders in Delaware in September.
“There is a summit this year, which will be the Quad summit. I note that all the Quad foreign ministers will be visiting President Trump’s inauguration on January 20, including Penny Wong representing Australia,” the Prime Minister said.
“When I had the discussion with the incoming president, we discussed the Quad. We’ve discussed as well with the Indian authorities, with Prime Minister Modi last year when we met. He’ll be hosting the Quad and indeed I had a discussion with the (Indian) high commissioner on January 1 when he visited Kirribilli House with the Indian cricket team. We had a discussion there about those details. But they occur diplomatically and we will get that organised appropriately.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong will fly out within days to join Mr Rudd at Mr Trump’s second inauguration, and will lead the nation’s efforts to build a new relationship with the new Republican White House.
But Mr Rudd’s position as ambassador has been in question over his past virulent criticisms of Mr Trump and his recent decision to holiday in Queensland over Christmas, just weeks out from the president’s swearing-in.
Asked about Mr Rudd’s future as ambassador, and if she would replace him if still foreign minister, Ms Bishop initially said the question was unfair, before adding: “We haven’t seen what occurs post-transition. It is still president-elect Trump. The inauguration is on the 20th of January so watch this space.”
In November, Trump aide Dan Scavino suggested Mr Rudd might be on borrowed time when he shared a GIF of sand running through an hourglass in response to a social media post in which Mr Rudd congratulated Mr Trump on his election win.
Mr Trump last year described Mr Rudd as “nasty” and said he “won’t be there long” when asked about the former prime minister’s highly critical comments from 2022.
In one now deleted post, Mr Rudd said: “He drags America and democracy through the mud. He thrives on fomenting, not healing, division. He abuses Christianity, church and Bible to justify violence.”
Mr Rudd also referred to Mr Trump as the “village idiot” in comments captured on video.
Mr Hockey, who was ambassador in Washington DC during Mr Trump’s first three years as president and who will attend his inauguration next week, noted Australia was one of just two countries to be given a state visit during Mr Trump’s first term.
“It was an incredible accolade for Australia. It costs nothing to make an offer and he is the most powerful person in the world as of next Monday,” the Bondi Partners founder told The Australian.
“Both candidates (for prime minister) should be thinking about offering Trump a state visit to Australia later this year. He was close to visiting Australia prior to his 2020 election and time beat us but it’s something that both the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition will need to think about.”
Michael Shoebridge, founder of Strategic Analysis Australia, said a prime minister who was “in charge and on top of a policy agenda” would want to meet with Mr Trump before the election, due by May, to demonstrate his policy agenda was powerful and something the president-elect would work with.
As Australia seeks protection from tariffs and a guarantee AUKUS will proceed, senior government sources said Mr Albanese wanted to meet with Mr Trump at the earliest opportunity.
They said Senator Wong’s invitation as Foreign Minister to his inauguration was unprecedented. She will hold meetings with members of the Trump administration, members of congress and other inauguration attendees while in the US to build on Mr Albanese’s “early engagement” with the new administration.
Mr Shoebridge said Mr Albanese should have expressed an interest in attending the inauguration.
“Precedent doesn’t really matter when it comes to Donald Trump. Donald Trump will see people wanting to come to his inauguration as a good thing and people staying away as a bad thing,” he said.
“He’s a guy who looks at the size of crowds at his rallies. This idea you can defend decisions not to go by a longstanding diplomatic protocol is a failure to understand the Trump administration. My view is he (Mr Albanese) doesn’t want to meet Trump before the election because he thinks the risks of going badly are too high.”
Mr Dutton said it would be important for Senator Wong to make contact with Mr Trump’s incoming secretaries while she was in Washington, insisting there was “a lot of repair work” to be done.
“Penny Wong has made some pretty derogatory remarks in the past about President Trump. As we know, Ambassador (Kevin) Rudd has, as well. So presumably that will form part of the discussions that they have in Washington to explain whether or not that view has changed,” the Liberal leader told ABC radio.
“Penny Wong has been completely at odds with the US over a number of issues in recent months with regard to the Middle East as well … The damage that Penny Wong has done to a number of relationships should be the focus of repair work over the balance of this term.”
Government sources said Mr Rudd had met regularly with congressional leaders and individuals in Mr Trump’s circles over the past year and was widely regarded as one of the most active and effective ambassadors in the US in developing critical networks among Republicans and Democrats.
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