Albanese and Trump to meet at the White House next month

New York: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will meet US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on October 20, ending long-running speculation about when the two men would hold their first face-to-face meeting.

A White House official confirmed the meeting would take place on that date, but provided no other details.

Albanese is currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where he is expected to see the president at a reception with more than 100 other world leaders on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST).

The prime minister had earlier said he would have the opportunity to meet Trump on the sidelines of the ASEAN or APEC summits in Malaysia and South Korea at the end of October.

Speaking at a Macquarie Bank event in New York, Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said he was “utterly optimistic about how we navigate the future of the Australia-US relationship”.

“And that’s why we were delighted to have the White House confirm this morning that the PM will be back in the United States on the 20th of October to meet with the President of the United States in Washington, DC,” he said.

“This relationship will go from strength to strength,” Rudd said, adding that Australia was one of America’s few “continuing, robust, reliable allies”.

The announcement will please supporters of the US-Australia alliance, who were growing alarmed by the length of time between Trump’s inauguration and a meeting with Albanese.

Justin Bassi, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told this masthead: “I’m usually sceptical about focusing too much on any individual meeting but eight months into the second Trump administration, we really do want our leaders to be meeting face to face and talking about how we take the alliance forward.

“The world’s in a difficult place with authoritarian regimes working more closely together and seeking to undermine our societies, so a critical relationship like ours should be prioritised by both sides because that’s the best way to deter aggression.”

The pair have spoken four times by phone since Trump was elected last year but have not met in person. The absence of a sit-down encounter, until now, had been painted as a failure by the Coalition.

Expectations of Trump and Albanese’s first meeting heightened when the pair spoke on the phone earlier this month, and when Trump lashed out at veteran Australian journalist John Lyons last week.

Accusing Lyons of undermining Australian diplomacy by asking questions about his family business dealings, Trump said: “You know, your leader is coming over to see me very soon. I’m going to tell him about you. You set a very bad tone.”

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