Albanese flags potential trip to NATO summit in the Netherlands to reschedule canned Trump meeting within days

Anthony Albanese has flagged a trip to the NATO summit in the Netherlands next week after his meeting with US President Donald Trump was canned.

While he planned to cosy up to key ally America in a much anticipated first in-person meeting on the sideline of the G7, the PM missed out after Mr Trump made an abrupt exit.

Speaking in Kananaskis in the Rocky Mountains on Wednesday, Mr Albanese said “yes, that is being considered” when asked if he would travel to the upcoming summit in The Hague on June 24-25.

It could mean the pair meet within days instead of the next likely date which would have been in September in Washington around the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

Mr Trump had departed a day earlier citing the escalating Israel-Iran conflict, prompting the cancellation of a string of meetings with world leaders, including Mr Albanese.

Mr Albanese labelled Mr Trump’s departure as “understandable” and hit back at questions of why he hadn’t received a phone call from the president after the cancellation like India and Mexico’s leaders had.

“We’re mature about the circumstances of what happened. It’s perfectly understandable,” he said.

“We’ll reschedule a meeting. From time to time, that is what occurs.”

Despite his headline meeting falling through, Mr Albanese had face time with several key figures during the trip, including the heads of Canada, Italy, France, India the UK, Japan, and South Korea.

“As well as saying G’day to a whole bunch of other people during the day,” the PM added.

“It’s a real opportunity for Australia to engage with a range of partners.”

It also included a trilateral with European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council’s President António Costa.

“I’m pleased to announce today that we will commence negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the European Union,” he said.

“We see this as an important framework for our current and future cooperation in areas like defence industry, cyber and counter-terrorism.

“We will have our respective ministers progress that (agreement) over coming weeks. But we hope to conclude those discussions pretty quickly.”

In Mr Albanese’s most recent meeting on Wednesday morning, he met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

It marked the duo’s first official bilateral after the pair had first met on the sidelines of Pope XIV’s inauguration mass in Rome last month.

“We discussed how we can deepen our economic and infrastructure ties through our enhanced strategic partnership with further trade and business cooperation in the energy transition,” the PM said.

“We also reiterated our commitment to the ongoing need in Ukraine and uphold international law.”

It comes as Penny Wong on Wednesday announced further sanctions by Australia on 60 vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet, echoing sanctions imposed by other nations.

While Mr Albanese didn’t get the chance to raise the importance of the trilateral AUKUS agreement with Mr Trump he said confirmed he had strong support from UK PM Keir Starmer.

He labelled his British counterpart as a “good friend” and revealed Mr Starmer had extended the PM an invite during their engagement.

“I also met my good friend, Keir Starmer,” he said.

“We welcome the progress that we’ve made to bolster the UK-Australia relationship.

“We discussed continuing to work together on both AUKUS Pillar 1 and AUKUS Pillar 2. And Prime Minister Starmer invited me to the United Kingdom over the coming period.”

Alongside AUKUS the pair discussed the Australia-UK Climate and Energy Partnership and “very effective” Free Trade Agreement.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute fellow Henry Campbell said while the cancellation of the meeting was “disheartening” it was “hardly a surprise”.

“We can be sure it’s not personal. Meetings with other national leaders, including the Presidents of Ukraine, South Korea, and Mexico, were also cancelled,” he said.

“This does not automatically make the missed meeting, however, a ‘nothing’ event.”

He added it would be “foolish to abandon AUKUS because of one missed meeting”.