Trump says Australian leader coming to see him soon | World News
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the leader of Australia, Prime Miner Anthony Albanese, would be coming for a visit to see him soon.
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Speaking to reporters as he departed the White House for a state visit to Britain, Trump did not give a date for the visit Albanese, who is due in the United States next week to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
“They want to get along with me,” Trump said of Australians, in response to a question an Australian journal. “You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon.”
Albanese, reelected as leader of a center-left Labor government in a May national election, has yet to meet Trump, after a meeting scheduled on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June was canceled when the president left early.
The allies have much to discuss, including the multi-billion dollar
AUKUS project , also involving Britain, to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines to counter China’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific, which is currentlyunder Pentagon review.
Albanese will attend a reception hosted Trump on Tuesday in New York, although a bilateral meeting between the leaders has yet to be scheduled, the prime miner said in an interview on Monday.Asked in an Australian television interview on Tuesday if he would meet Trump in New York, Albanese replied: “We’ll see what happens there.”
Australia’s Washington embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Saturday, Australia said it would spend A$12 billion ($8 billion) to establish defence facilities in Western Australia to help deliver submarines under AUKUS.
US Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Col, a public critic of AUKUS is leading the Pentagon review of the project. He said last year that submarines were a scarce, critical commodity, and U.S. industry could not produce enough to meet American demand.
