The prime minister will wait a little longer for a second-chance meeting with Donald Trump as the president pushes out his timeline to act on the situation in the Middle East.
Anthony Albanese will not go to The Hague for next week’s NATO summit, with his deputy Richard Marles to represent Australia at the event as originally planned.
Mr Albanese was considering making a last-minute dash to the talks, which could have provided an opportunity to meet in person with the US president.
The pair had been scheduled to hold their first face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada earlier this week.
But 24 hours before they were due to meet, Mr Trump revealed he would leave the event early to deal with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.
The prime minister is keen to meet with Mr Trump to try to negotiate an exemption from US tariffs, advocate for the nation’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK and discuss defence spending.
Mr Trump is expected to attend the NATO summit, but there is no guarantee he will not pull out at the last second amid volatility in the Middle East.
The US president on Friday said he would decide whether to get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict “within the next two weeks”.
Liberal senator James Paterson earlier said the prime minister should attend NATO regardless of whether he meets with Mr Trump.
He believes it would allow Mr Albanese to co-ordinate with allies and help support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
It would also present an opportunity to discuss the situation in Iran with European partners, and discuss defence spending.
“If he meets with President Trump on the sidelines, that would be a bonus,” Senator Paterson said.
“But frankly, I think his approach of now waiting seven months to go and see the president and not going to see him in Washington DC, relying on a chance meeting on the sidelines of an international forum, is a very risky strategy.”
The prime minister wasn’t the only world leader left hanging at the G7.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskiy also had talks scheduled with Mr Trump the day after he left.
Mr Albanese met with senior members of the president’s economic team including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
The talks involved trade, tariffs and critical minerals – which Australia has considered using as a bargaining chip in US tariff negotiations.
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