‘Terrible lapse of judgement': John Howard blasts PM for not having yet visited US President Donald Trump in Washington
Mr Albanese begins a six-day trip to China on Saturday at the invitation of Premier Li Qiang, with talks during the bilateral meeting set to cover trade, tourism, and global and regional issues.
The trip, which marks the prime minister's fourth official visit to China, comes amid ongoing criticism directed towards Mr Albanese for not having met with Mr Trump since he was sworn in as the 47th US President in January.
Speaking with Sky News, Mr Howard has described the current geopolitical environment as 'unstable' and insisted questions need to be asked about the state of the Australia-United States relationship.
In light of Mr Albanese's China visit, Mr Howard said it is 'very important' for Australia to maintain relations with both China and the US, adding that he thought the prime minister's trip to Beijing was 'a good thing'.
'But I think that it's very bad thing, very bad thing, that he's still not had a face-to-face meeting with the new American president. Now that is a terrible lapse of judgement and a bad ordering of priorities,' Mr Howard said.
'I'm not saying that he should insult or ignore the Chinese, far from it... but heavens above. Trump has been the President of the United States since the 20th of January this year, and our prime minister hasn't had a meeting with him.'
In light of the cancelled meeting between Mr Albanese and Mr Trump that had been set to go ahead at G7 Summit last month before the US President left the event early, Mr Howard outlined what he said he would do if he was in Mr Albanese's position.
'You just ring up and say, 'I want to come and see you in Washington',' Mr Howard said.
'... I used to go to see President Bush, and before that President Clinton, I had good relations with both of them, and I just think it's poor form (from Mr Albanese) to say the least.'
The former prime minister then questioned whether Mr Albanese was possibly 'scared of meeting' the US President.
'Is he scared of meeting him? I don't know,' Mr Howard said.
Mr Howards comments come after more details were revealed this week about a meeting between Mr Trump and Australia's ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd that took place at the Trump International Golf Course in Florida on January 11.
The 'brief' face-to-face encounter occurred just days before Mr Tump's Presidential Inauguration, and answers released on notice from Senate Estimates said a diplomatic cable was sent to Canberra after the meeting.
The scrapped talks at the G7 summit, which had been expected to cover key issues including AUKUS and US tariffs on Australian exports, involved months of work for Mr Rudd in securing the meeting.
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