Anthony Albanese locks in first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump at G7 summit in Canada
Anthony Albanese will meet US President Donald Trump face-to-face for the first time this week, using talks on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada to press the case for an exemption to trade tariffs and talk up the Aukus agreement.
Touring Amazon's headquarters in Seattle on Sunday AEST, the prime minister confirmed a meeting had been set with Trump in Kananaskis, Alberta, along with separate bilateral talks with the leaders of Canada, the UK and Germany.
The meeting is locked in for Tuesday local time, overnight in Australia.
The highly anticipated meeting comes as the war in the Middle East grows, and days after the Pentagon announced a snap review of the agreement for the US and UK to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia.
'Obviously, there are issues that the US president is dealing with at the moment, but I expect that we will be able to have a constructive engagement as well,' Albanese said.
'I look forward to building on the very constructive phone conversations that we've had on the three occasions that we've had the opportunity to talk.'
He said he would raise Trump's tariff regime, and flagged discussions on Australia's supply of critical minerals and possible changes to biosecurity rules to allow more US beef to be imported into Australia.
'We have made it very clear that we want to continue to increase our trade with the United States, and we want constructive outcomes, and I'll put forward Australia's national interest.
'Australia has a free trade agreement with the United States and one of the things that I will state privately, as well as state publicly, is that the United States has enjoyed a very long trade surplus with Australia.'
He stressed that US consumers were the losers from tariffs imposed by Trump. Albanese has previously described the tariff regime as an act of economic self-harm by the White House.
Albanese will raise possible benefits for the United States military from Aukus, including industrial capability for submarine construction, as well as infrastructure investment for maintenance of US subs at the Henderson naval base, south of Fremantle.
'What Aukus will do is improve the productivity of the defence forces of both the United States and Australia, which is why it is in our interest,' he said.
Trump is due to land in Canada on Sunday night local time, after overseeing a military parade in Washington DC, coinciding with his 79th birthday.
When he attended the 2018 G7 summit in Canada, Trump refused to sign the joint leaders' statement and accused then prime minister Justin Trudeau of being 'very dishonest and weak'.
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This time, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has ditched the traditional communique to avoid a fight among G7 leaders.
The talks are likely to be dominated by Israel's bombing attacks on Iran and the growing security crisis in the region.
Albanese said the government was monitoring the situation and providing assistance for Australians caught up in the conflict, including helping them get out safely.
The prime minister met with Amazon Web Services chief executive Matt Garman, as the company announced plans to expand its data centres and build renewable energy projects in Australia.
The new spending is designed to boost cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
AWS will spend up to $20bn by 2029 on three solar farms in Victoria and Queensland, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 290,000 homes.
Albanese will meet with business executives at a function on Saturday night in Seattle, hosted by Australia's ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.
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