Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yet to secure critical meeting with Donald Trump ahead of G7 trip

Anthony Albanese will visit Fiji, and the United States prior to heading to Canada to attend the G7 conference where the Prime Minister is facing intense pressure to secure his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump. Mr Albanese will fly out of Canberra on Friday morning for Nadi, Fiji where he is set to speak to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. The meeting can be seen as a concerted effort for Australia to cement its relationship with its Pacific allies amid increasing aggression from China. It will also canvas the impact of climate change on the region, which island countries in the bloc describe as their biggest existential threat. “Visiting Fiji so soon after the election is a deliberate decision to reinforce my government’s Pacific priorities and to exchange views with my dear friend Prime Minister Rabuka, a respected Pacific statesman,” Mr Albanese said. The Labor leader will then travel to Seattle on the US West Coast to meet with business leaders, with the talks set to focus on emerging technologies such artificial intelligence. His arrival coincides with the end of AI Con, which is being attended by tech giants including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services. Mr Albanese will back-end the six-day trip by attending the G7 leaders summit in Kananaskis, Canada, where he it is hoped he will finally meet with Mr Trump. Demands for a face-to-face meeting substantially increased on Thursday after the Pentagon announced it would be reviewing the AUKUS defence agreement to ensure it still “aligned with the President’s America First agenda”. Whether Australia will be able to obtain a tariff exemption will be another key discussion point. The US has also made strident calls for Australia to lift defence spending from the current levels of about 2 per cent of GDP to 3.5 per cent, with Labor committing funding to ensure funding increases to 2.5 per cent by 2029/30. While Australia is not a member of the G7 – which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US, and the European Union – Mr Albanese was invited to attend the summit alongside the likes of India, Indonesia, South Korea and Ukraine. Mr Albanese is also expected to have bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung. Key discussions will include securing global supply chains, the future of advanced technologies like AI and the role of critical minerals, which Australia hopes to be a global player in. Supply of critical minerals could also play a role in securing a tariff exemption with the US, with the Albanese government investing $1.2bn in establishing a Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, which includes stockpiling critical elements depending on global market. Mr Albanese said he was “honoured” to have been invited by Mr Carney. “I look forward to working productively with world leaders to discuss how we tackle some of the most challenging issues facing Australia, our region, and the world,” he said.