‘A lot of problems’: Trump to skip G20, ramping up pressure for NY meeting with Albanese

Washington: US President Donald Trump confirmed he will not attend the G20 leaders’ summit in South Africa in November, removing another opportunity for him to encounter Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and adding pressure for them to meet this month in the US.

Trump indicated six weeks ago that he might skip the meeting in Johannesburg because he had “a lot of problems with South Africa”, having taken issue with its land policies, actions against Israel and what he claimed, without evidence, was a genocide of white farmers.

On Friday, US time, he confirmed he would not attend and would send Vice President JD Vance instead. “It’s in South Africa, I won’t be going – JD will be going, great vice president, and he looks forward to it,” Trump said.

He announced the US would host next year’s G20 summit in Miami, in the fast-growing state of Florida, and said new Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whom he met at the White House during the week, had already been invited as a guest.

Trump also entertained the idea of inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the G20. “I haven’t thought of that, that’s an interesting question. I’m going to think about that for a little while,” he said.

Albanese had identified the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in New York, along with other global meetings in the end-of-year “summit season”, as potential locations for a face-to-face meeting with Trump.

“I’ll be certainly with President Trump a number of times between now and the end of the year,” Albanese told Channel Nine’s Today late last month. “It’s summit season … so we’ll be running into each other regularly.”

That included the Quad leaders’ meeting – a group containing Australia, the US, India and Japan – due to take place later this year in India. However, relations between the US and India have also soured in recent months, and The New York Times reported last week that Trump no longer planned to attend the Quad summit, citing sources familiar with his schedule.

On Thursday night (AEST), Albanese spoke with Trump for the fourth time since the president was elected, in a call the Australian leader described as “warm and constructive”. The leaders discussed economic and security matters including the supply of critical minerals, Albanese said, but there was no mention of a face-to-face meeting in the readout provided by his office.

The White House has not provided a readout of the call, and Trump has not commented on it publicly. Attempts by this masthead to seek comment have been refused.

A meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in late September remains possible. However, people familiar with Trump’s schedule – which is not finalised – have indicated to this masthead that his time in New York is likely to be brief.

Albanese’s colleagues have been bullish about a face-to-face meeting.

Resources Minister Madeleine King, who has responsibility for critical minerals, told the ABC on Friday: “There’s been a number of phone calls and I know there will be a meeting in due course. Every day I guess it’s closer, isn’t it?”

The two leaders were supposed to meet in June at the G7 leaders’ meeting in Canada, which Albanese was attending as an invited guest, but Trump left the summit early to attend to a brewing Middle East crisis.

The prime minister’s office declined to comment further on Thursday’s call.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.