Australia-US ties under the microscopepublished at 15:29 BST
Tiffanie Turnbull
BBC News, Sydney
Image source, Getty Images
Albanese has been trying to secure this meeting for months.
He and Trump have had several “warm” and “constructive” conversations over the phone and briefly chatted on the sidelines of the UN meeting in New York last month.
But this is first proper meeting for the two leaders, and they come at a time the broader Australian public is casting a more critical eye on the country’s ties with its long-time ally.
Trump’s tariffs, his “America First” rhetoric, the review of the landmark Aukus defence pact, and his personal reputation in Australia have all fuelled growing distrust of the US.
The numbers vary, but polling has consistently showed Trump is unpopular here, and fewer Australians believe America is a reliable ally under his leadership.
And yet the latest poll found that, nevertheless, about half of Australians think the nation needs its alliance with the US more than ever.”It’s one thing to say Donald Trump is difficult, Donald Trump is unpopular. It’s another thing to come up with an alternative to the US right now,” the United States Studies Centre’s Jared Mondschein told the BBC.
Canberra knows that too, he says, and has been at pains to point to the two country’s shared history ahead of the visit.
“Australia and the United States have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in every major conflict for over a century,” Albanese said in a statement before his flight to Washington.
“Our meeting is an important opportunity to consolidate and strengthen the Australia-United States relationship.”
