‘Outside chance' Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles could meet face-to-face with Trump this week after Albanese's G7 snub
The summit is set to take place at the Hague, the Netherlands, on June 24 to the 26.
A Canberra source told Sky News political correspondent Cameron Reddin the Defence Minister had an 'outside chance' of becoming the first member of government to meet the leader of the free world, although it was a 'very fluid situation'.
Trump is due to fly to the Netherlands on Tuesday and may meet with the four Indo-Pacific nations, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Japan, who form the IP4 meeting, to take place this week.
However, Mr Albanese was not alone in his decision not to attend the NATO summit and was joined by South Korea and Japan whose leaders would also skip the trip.
Japan's Fuji Television said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was pulling out because a planned meeting between NATO and the group of four Indo-Pacific nations (IP4) was not likely to take place, and because a meeting with Trump was also unlikely.
Japan said Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya will travel to the Netherlands to attend NATO-related functions and hold bilateral meetings.
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said if Mr Marles did manage to score a one-on-one with Trump it would be 'very embarrassing' for the Prime Minister.
'This is a big problem now that our Prime Minister hasn't met with President Trump six months after his election,' he said.
' There has been ample time to do that.'
Mr Canavan said he did not blame Mr Albanese for being snubbed at the G7 as it was 'out of his control', but a meeting in Washington in the six months since Trump's inauguration should have occurred.
'Many other leaders have done this. We're one of the Five Eyes nations, so one of the four most important allies to the United States,' he said.
'It is unacceptable that our government, our Prime Minister, has not met with the new Prime Minister six months after (Trump's) election.'
Over the weekend, Sky News revealed Mr Albanese had yet to receive a phone call from Trump after their meeting was cancelled at the G7 summit in Canada.
As of Saturday, Mr Albanese had not received a phone call from Trump, even though he contacted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
There has been no indication that the President has contacted other cancelled counterparts, such as South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, or Mr Albanese.
The Albanese government has suggested there is no cause for concern, despite the highly-visible diplomatic snub.
A meeting between the two leaders is still agreed to, according to senior government sources - and the question is simply when, not if.
-with Reuters
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Flying under some people's radar – though not Fried's – at the White House gathering was Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who is just shy of 18 months in office. He has quickly bonded with Trump over golf – they played together in Florida earlier this year, and Stubb recently told The Wall Street Journal they talked about Putin at lunch. Trump asked if he could trust the Russian president. 'You cannot,' Stubb said he replied. Finnish President Alexander Stubb arrives at the White House on Monday. Credit: New York Times At the start of Monday's meeting (Tuesday AEST), with the cameras in the room, Trump gave each European leader a chance to say their piece. Stubb brought up the Winter War; the Soviet Union's invasion of Finland in December 1939, by which many scholars believe Joseph Stalin sought to conquer the entire country. 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Zelensky, naturally, has been reluctant to cede territory; his country's constitution effectively binds him to maintain that Crimea, annexed by Putin in 2014, will always be part of Ukraine, for example. This has angered Trump, who blames then US president Barack Obama for 'allowing' that invasion, and who began the week telling Zelensky via TruthSocial to give up on Crimea and NATO membership for Ukraine. US President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrives at the White House on Monday. Credit: AP Michael O'Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, argues Trump's strategy is in some ways better than his predecessor Joe Biden's as it's more grounded in the battlefield reality of the war. 'Ukraine's simply not going to win back most of the territory,' he says. 'People knew that before, but they weren't willing to base policy on that premise, and now they are.' 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And Trump put on the table something critical that wasn't on the table before, which is security for Ukraine in a way that could actually work. That's a big deal.' Fried knows Putin won't accept anything unless he's forced to. 'But one impossible problem at a time.' Ukrainian soldiers practise skills near Kharkiv on Tuesday. Credit: Ukraine defence forces/AP Trump's grand bargain Donald Trump also faces some tough choices. Since returning to office, he has boasted of his relationship with Putin as an asset; a necessity to making a deal to end the war. His faith in Putin – the one he was whispering to Macron about in Washington – has ebbed and flowed. What was once certainty of the Russian's desire for peace has given way to a creeping realisation that he may be playing for time. Sometimes Trump credits his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, for aiding him in this journey. 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We have cards to play. It's not a fantasy.' Fried was appalled by the Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, describing it as a 'hot mess', and he was equally aghast when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began talking down the threat of sanctions because they would spoil the atmosphere for talks. 'What are you talking about man?' Fried shrieks. 'He knows better.'
