Donald Trump meet ‘not specifically on the agenda’ at NATO summit, Deputy PM says

When Australia’s top leadership will meet Donald Trump in the flesh remains unknown after Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles admitted a face-to-face with the US President is not scheduled at this week’s NATO summit. Mr Marles is in the Netherlands for the summit representing Australia as one of the Indo Pacific Four (IP4) – non-NATO countries that work closely with the military alliance in the region. Nikkei has reported Mr Trump was seeking to meet with IP4 representatives amid growing concerns of a Chinese threat, described by his administration as potentially “imminent”. Mr Marles, who is also defence minister, said overnight a meeting was “not specifically on the agenda”, hastily adding that he “wouldn’t want to overstate any of that”. “I think we are in large rooms with lots of people, and these meetings, gatherings like this, end up being pretty fluid in terms of the bilaterals that you end up organising,” he told reporters from The Hague. “But look, it is a really significant gathering for us to attend, and the importance of the NATO summit has grown in terms of the way in which we engage with the world.” He added that how events in the Indo Pacific and in the North Atlantic “are influencing each other is growing”. “What’s happening here in Europe, what’s happening, specifically in the war in Ukraine is engaging Australia’s national interests, and it’s a really important gathering for us to attend,” Mr Marles said. Anthony Albanese was considering going to the NATO summit after his scheduled meeting with Mr Trump at the G7 fell through. The Prime Minister ultimately decided against attending, saying Australia would be an outlier by sending its national leader. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is the IP4 leader to attend. Mr Marles brushed off a question about whether the absence of regional leaders sent the wrong message to Mr Trump, saying he “wouldn’t read too much into that”. “I mean, at any given multilateral there are reasons why leaders are able to or not able to attend,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of commentary about the extensive agenda for the Prime Minister overseas during the course of this year. “And so, you know, he needs to balance all of that and this is a meeting that I was able to attend last year on behalf of Australia, and I’m able to do so again this year. “I don’t read anything particularly into Japan and (South) Korea not being present here at a leader level, but they are very much represented here at this meeting.” Speaking to Today on Wednesday morning Jim Chalmers downplayed host Karl Stevanoic’s accusations that Mr Albanese didn’t attend NATO because “Donald Trump’s just not that into Albo”. “This NATO summit is not primarily about a discussion between the Deputy Prime Minister and the president of the United States,” the Treasurer said. “This is a discussion about defence arrangements in Europe and beyond. We’ve got an important agenda there. We’ve sent the Deputy Prime Minister and he’ll do a terrific job.” Mr Chalmers reiterated that “it’s not clear whether there’ll be a brief opportunity for the two of them to have a conversation”, but regardless it was important Australia attended. “It’s important that we are represented by the Deputy Prime Minister and also the Defence Minister. It is an important opportunity for Australians to engage and we will make the most of that.”