Trump-Albanese meeting could happen in India
Anthony Albanese has signalled he could use a gathering of world leaders in India to meet Donald Trump as he justifies Australia's defence spending as more transparent than the measures used by other countries.
Albanese is the only leader of the Quad grouping – India, the US, Japan and Australia – not to have met Trump in person and faces pressure from the White House to follow NATO and lift defence spending to at least 3.5 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product.
Albanese has spoken with Trump on three occasions and was due to meet the president at the recent G7 meeting in Canada, but Trump cancelled his meetings that day and returned to Washington early to deal with events in the Middle East.
Albanese told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing that he was ready to meet Trump 'when a suitable time can be organised' and noted the Quad meeting was in coming months.
'So these things are being organised, and I look forward to having a meeting and continuing the constructive dialogue that I've had with President Trump up to now,' he said.
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The Quad has the stated goal of defending a free and open Indo-Pacific, but is widely seen as a forum for containing China.
The date for the 2025 Quad leaders meeting has not yet been set, but the four nations' foreign ministers are meeting in Washington and, according to a report in Times of India earlier this month, that get-together is likely to set a date for the leaders' meeting.
Albanese also plans to attend the UN leader's week in September and deliver his first address to that forum, and a possible meeting in the White House afterwards could occur after that event.
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