China warnings set to dominate White House talks between Joe Biden and Anthony Albanese
China’s escalating intimidation and coercion tactics in the Indo-Pacific and the South China Sea are set to dominate closed-door discussions during the PM’s Washington visit.
China’s escalating intimidation and coercion tactics in the Indo-Pacific and increasingly aggressive maritime claims in the South China Sea are set to dominate closed-door discussions during Anthony Albanese’s White House state visit in Washington.
Ahead of the Prime Minister travelling to Beijing on November 4 for meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, Joe Biden’s most senior advisers have warned that the US must “succeed” in its battle with Beijing for strategic supremacy.
As Mr Albanese seeks to balance Australia’s strong and enduring alliance with the US and his pursuit of Chinese leaders to repair economic and trade relationships, top Biden administration figures will meet with him in the White House cabinet room on Thursday (AEDT time) to reiterate their unwavering commitment to long-term stability in the Indo-Pacific.
The Prime Minister had been set to use a speech on the White House lawns on Thursday (AEDT) to warn that it would be a mistake to take US global leadership for granted.
“American leadership is indispensable, but it is not inevitable,” Mr Albanese was to say, according to a copy of his speech. “It takes a leader to deliver it … While we do indeed face testing times, our friendship is tried and tested. Our people are up for the challenge.”
The speech does not mention China or the Indo-Pacific, but meetings at the White House are expected to focus on Beijing’s tactics and long-term aspirations.
President Joe Biden and senior officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Indo-Pacific co-ordinator Kurt Campbell and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are understood to be keen to “share notes” with Mr Albanese and compare their assessments of Mr Xi and the Chinese communist government.
The Australian understands senior government figures have expressed to US counterparts their absolute commitment to the alliance and potential benefits in opening lines of communication with Beijing.
Amid a protracted freeze in US-China diplomatic relations, Beijing has dispatched Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to meet with Mr Blinken.
He is due to arrive in Washington on the same day Mr Albanese heads back to Australia.
Against a gloomy backdrop of the Israel-Hamas conflict and a likely ground invasion, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and global recession fears, Mr Albanese will join Mr Biden for a packed White House schedule headlined by a rare state dinner. The dinner is only the fourth Mr Biden has hosted for world leaders since ousting Donald Trump from office.
Mr Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon, who attended a private and intimate dinner in the White House Green Room on Wednesday (AEDT), will be greeted on the South Lawn by a 19-gun salute and full military parade.
Following meetings and official events, including a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden, Mr Biden and Mr Albanese are expected to announce a series of new clean energy, space, First Nations, defence and climate change agreements.
In the White House arrival speech, delivered before he walks the fabled Colonnade path to the Oval Office, Mr Albanese will promote a future-leaning US-Australia alliance that elevates climate action and clean energy as a third pillar of the relationship behind defence and economic partnerships.
Mr Albanese will strongly back “new third pillar of our alliance” aimed at seizing the transformative economic opportunities of clean energy and the potential to combat climate change faster.
“From quantum computing and medical science to agriculture and defence, it’s our people driving unprecedented collaboration in our creative industries, in art and film and music, from Barbie to Bluey,” Mr Albanese will say. “It’s our people partnering to unlock the possibilities of clean energy and critical minerals.
“The new third pillar of our alliance: a plan for both our nations to seize the transformative economic opportunities of clean energy and a plan to help every nation meet the global challenge of climate change.
“It is our people who will train together – side by side – to service the next generation of our submarines and defence technology. And it is our people that we honour, when we remember the generations of Australians and Americans who have fought and fallen together – our veterans and all those who have given the cause of peace their last full measure of devotion.”
Resources Minister Madeleine King will accompany Mr Albanese to the Cabinet Room meeting, which will be attended by senior administration officials including Mr Sullivan, Mr Campbell, Mr Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Special Climate Envoy John Kerry and US ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy.
Major announcements made by Mr Albanese in Washington this week, including the $6bn commitment to unlock critical minerals faster and Microsoft’s $5bn investment pledge supporting cyber security and data storage, have links to China’s aggressive cyber warfare operations and dominance over critical minerals and rare earths supply chains.
National Security Council strategic communications co-ordinator John Kirby on Wednesday (AEDT time) rejected suggestions that conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine had shifted the Biden administration’s focus away from the Indo-Pacific region.
Some US and Australian security hawks are anxious about the optics of Mr Albanese’s three-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai, which marks the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s visit to China and cessation of damaging trade bans.
Mr Kirby said: “President Biden believes it is important that we keep lines of communication open with China.”
“We view China as a strategic competitor.
“It’s a competition that we need to succeed in … We’re taking a holistic view of this relationship – more open lines of communication with China is a good thing.
“I’ve heard this speculation that because we’re so fixated on supporting Ukraine, and now, of course, we’re deeply involved in supporting Israel, that somehow we’re going to lose sight, or we’re going to lose focus on the Indo-Pacific.
“And I just gotta tell you, from my perspective, I just don’t see it.”
Another senior US administration official told reporters that President Biden was looking forward to “sharing notes and comparing details” with Mr Albanese about what the two leaders were seeing in relation to Mr Xi and China.
At a critical minerals industry roundtable meeting attended by Mr Albanese and Ms King, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo warned that China had a “head start” on critical minerals supply chains and could “cause a great deal of pain” if it cut off countries.
Additional reporting: Adam Creighton
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