Anthony Albanese won’t meet Donald Trump during his visit to the US for the Quad summit

Anthony Albanese has touched down in Philadelphia for potentially awkward Quad meeting with the leaders of US, India and Japan to discuss how to push back against Chinese expansionism in the Indo—Pacific.

Anthony Albanese in Philadelphia on Friday AEST. Picture: PMO

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Anthony Albanese has brushed off suggestions he should seek a meeting with Donald Trump as the Prime Minister touched down in Philadelphia ahead of meetings with the leaders of India, the US and Japan to co-ordinate how to push back against Chinese ­aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu travelled to the former president’s Florida home of Mar-a-Lago in July to meet the Republican presidential candidate, and ahead of a scheduled meeting between India’s Narendra Modi and Mr Trump next week, Mr Albanese declined to use the former president’s name at a brief press conference on Thursday (Friday AEST).

“I’m meeting the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and I’ll be meeting President Biden and meeting Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida and Prime Minister Modi. That’s the purpose of my visit here,” he said.

He said he would raise with Mr Modi the issue of India’s spying in Australia. The talks are to take place during the weekend’s Quad leaders’ summit in the US in what will be Mr Albanese’s first meeting with his Indian counterpart since revelations that ASIO had expelled an Indian “nest of spies”.

“That will no doubt be something that is raised,” Mr Albanese said, describing Australia’s relationship with India as “a very strong one”. “What I do is I raise issues privately. That’s how we deal with things diplomatically. I will continue to do so.”

The Quad, set up in 2004 to co-ordinate disaster relief after that year’s tsunami, was elevated in importance after Mr Biden became President in 2021 owing to its potential role as a bulwark against Chinese economic and military aggression.

The group of disparate democracies, however, experienced a fracture after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The Modi government refused to support sanctions on Russia, instead increasing its purchases of Russian oil and maintaining friendly relations with Moscow.

Mr Albanese, who will have met Mr Biden 11 times after Saturday’s Quad meetings, said “security, stability, but also opportunity” would be key themes of group and bilateral meetings among the four leaders of the Quad group of democratic nations set to take place in the president’s home town of Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday (Sunday AEST), culminating in a dinner at Mr Biden’s high school, Archmere Academy.

“What I’m very confident of is that our relations with our friends here in the United States is a relationship between nations based upon our common values that we have and that it is not just a relationship between individuals – as strong as my relationship with President Biden has been,” he said, refusing to be drawn on ­implications of the presidential election in November for Australia or the Quad.

Mr Albanese struck up a good rapport with the President – who was replaced by Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in July – at last year’s October state dinner which was arranged after Mr Biden pulled out of a planned trip to Australia.

Speaking of China, Mr Albanese said: “We will co-operate when we can, we will disagree where we must, but we’ll engage in our ­national interest. And that is something that has led to an ­improvement in the relationships with China.”

Mr Albanese has welcomed the thaw in relations between Canberra and Beijing.

“President Biden has been a great friend of Australia,” he added. “He’s been a champion of the Quad. He has been a strong advocate of an increase of US ­engagement in our region, in the Indo-Pacific region”

The Prime Minister also complained about his treatment by media in relation to his overseas travel schedule. “I have prioritised the visits that I have to make, and I know I get criticised for not doing more international travel. And the irony of that, when compared with some of the coverage of when I do travel, is not lost,” he said. It will be his last meeting with Mr Biden as President, and Mr Kishida, who has decided not to run for re-election.