China first
As Anthony Albanese prepares for a fourth meeting with Xi Jinping, his long-awaited first handshake with Donald Trump is still out of reach.
Anthony Albanese is on track to notch up his fourth meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before he even shakes hands with Donald Trump for the first time.
An official visit to Beijing looms in the coming weeks, while a meeting with Trump remains stuck in a diplomatic holding pattern.
There is nothing inherently wrong with meeting Xi again. But the visit underscores the growing trepidation in Australia that the PM has so far been unable to meet with Trump.
It is Trump, not Xi, from whom Albanese is hoping to secure a suite of concessions, including a commitment to AUKUS, the scrapping of punitive tariffs and a compromise on calls to lift defence spending — just to name a few.
