Source : the age
By James Massola
Calgary: Anthony Albanese will stare down Donald Trump’s demands for Australia to double its defence spending, but reassure the president the country is a trustworthy partner in the strategic contest with China as the prime minister works to safeguard the AUKUS pact.
In a meeting with Trump this week that looms as among the most important of his three decades in politics, Albanese will put access to Australia’s critical minerals on the table as the Trump administration reviews whether AUKUS fits with its “America First” agenda.
Asked whether Australia would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the US if China attempted to take Taiwan by force – a source of some concern in some parts of the Trump administration – Albanese did not answer directly on Monday.
But the prime minister said AUKUS would play a key peace and security role.
“Australia’s a trusted partner to promote peace and security in our region,” Albanese said. “We have been so forever. If you look at the role that Australia has played, [we] will continue to play an important role in the Pacific. The visit that I had on the way here to Fiji is another example and a reminder of the fact that Australia is a trusted partner in the Pacific.”
Trump and Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting, which will take place against a backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Iran-Israel missile strikes, is scheduled for the early hours of Wednesday morning, Australian time, on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada.
Australian officials said that anything more than 20 minutes would be regarded as a win within the government after Trump used other meetings with world leaders to stage made-for-TV clashes.
Fresh from a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, another world leader who benefited electorally from distancing himself from the US president, Albanese said that he defined success with Trump as being able to argue Australia’s case.
“I don’t want to preempt outcomes of meetings [but] a successful meeting is one where we are able … to put forward our position,” Albanese said on Sunday, local time.
Australian officials, unauthorised to speak publicly, expect Trump to raise the issue of collective security against China’s rapidly expanding military and ask for more defence spending. Australia spends about 2 per cent of GDP on defence and is on track to increase to 2.3 per cent.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth recently said his country wanted Australia to raise spending by about $40 billion per year to about 3.5 per cent.
Albanese has pushed back against that call, arguing Australian defence spending has increased significantly on his watch and that the nation wouldn’t set an arbitrary target before choosing how to spend the extra money.
On Monday (AEST), Carney and Albanese discussed deepening defence ties – including through the proposed Canadian acquisition of a sophisticated Australian-made radar system – as well as that country’s participation in AUKUS’ “pillar 2”, which is focused on advanced technology.
Earlier this year, Carney won the Canadian election in a major upset, in part by vowing to “stand up” to Trump, who had suggested Canada could become a US state.
The Australian prime minister will meet a bevy of leaders when he attends the G7 summit on the edge of the Canadian Rockies mountain range this week, including the prime ministers of England, Japan and Germany, the presidents of France, South Korea and France, and EU leaders.
The conflict between Israel and Iran will feature prominently at the summit, as will discussions on access to critical minerals, climate change, energy security and the global economy.
But Albanese’s first meeting with Trump at the summit, which will not issue its typical joint communique, has dominated the lead-up to the event and comes at a time when there are an unusual number of sticking points in the usually smooth Australia-US relationship.
“Our position when it comes to tariffs is very clear,” Albanese said. “We see tariffs as acts of economic self-harm by the country imposing the tariffs because what it does is lead to increased costs for the country that is making those decisions,” he said.
“There aren’t increased steel production facilities that have appeared since January 20 in the United States, the exports are still going in there. They’re just paying more for them.”
He defended AUKUS, saying it would support the US’ military industrial capacity, submarine maintenance and bolster the broader defence relationship that includes American soldiers in Darwin.
In a veiled reference to China, Albanese argued that the transfer of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia would benefit all three nations and make the Indo-Pacific more secure.
Ahead of his meeting with Albanese, Carney highlighted Canada’s recent decision to pursue the purchase of Australia’s Jindalee Operational Radar Network in what would be Australia’s biggest ever defence export deal, worth an estimated $6.5 billion.
The radar network, which already operates in Australia and has a range of about 3000 kilometres, would be used by Canada to monitor its northern approaches in the Arctic region, which is increasingly contested and accessible to ships because of climate change.
The Canadian prime minister said the two nations were “great partners, share the same values, share many of the same interests in defence, security, a partnership reinforced, actually, by yourself and myself through the over-the-horizon radar [deal]”.
Although not a member of the G7, Australia is attending as an outreach partner along with the leaders of Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and Ukraine.
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