Anthony Albanese to meet with Voldomyr Zelensky at Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass

ROME, ITALY: Anthony Albanese will use his trip to the Vatican to meet Voldomyr Zelensky, in a major coup for the Australian Prime Minister, who has recently stepped up his commitment to Kyiv, including pledging Australian peacekeeping support to Ukraine.

The highly sought-after one-on-one is poised to take place on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass at the Basilica in Vatican City on Sunday.

And it comes at a critical time in the Trump Administration’s attempts to negotiate an end to the war. President Trump said he was planning to speak with both Mr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday, once the papal ceremony is over.

Mr Trump’s private and unscheduled meeting with Mr Zelensky — whom he publicly berated in the White House in February — on the sidelines of Pope Benedict’s funeral became the iconic image of the event and underlined the Vatican’s convening power.

Rome is set to host more high level meetings between Mr Zelensky, although Mr Trump will be represented by his Vice President JD Vance who touched down in Rome on Saturday night.

It’s not clear if Mr Vance, who started the White House row, will meet Mr Zelensky. Ukraine rarely details who the President will meet beforehand because of security concerns.

When asked if he was planning a meeting with Mr Zelensky Mr Albanese, a proud Catholic, was coy.

“That is one of the potential moves, but with travel and time zones and everything else we are trying to nut that down,” he told reporters.

But around the same time as the prime minister was speaking, The Nightly was told that the arrangements were all but locked in, with the time and place set for late Sunday afternoon.

The Ukranians were swift to make room in President’s Zelensky’s schedule for the Prime Minister, partly because Mr Albanese is so rarely in Europe.

Similarly, the war-time leader is a reluctant overseas traveller and has mostly visited the United States and European capitals since the full-scale invasion began and is unlikely to be travelling to Australia anytime soon.

The prime minister referenced the distance when asked by The Nightly to list what outcomes he would be proud to have achieved by flying to Europe, a trip only taking place because of the death of former pope and the election of Pope Leo XIV.

“I think the fact that tomorrow I’m going to be able to have discussions with so many world leaders in one place,” Mr Albanese said.

“One of the issues of being in Australian is that unlike in Europe, with land borders, where people can meet regularly, it is harder, obviously, for us to travel and have those face to face meetings.

“This will be an opportunity.”

When the pair meet, Mr Zelensky is sure to offer his gratitude for Australia’s support, which has included the supply of Bushmasters and a recent commitment to take part in any Coalition of the Willing to secure any peace in Ukraine.

But that looks far off. The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine held in Turkey on Friday lasted just two hours and resulted only in an agreed prisoner swap between the two sides.

Mr Putin did not attend.

Amid fears the Trump Administration will wash its hands of the European conflict if Mr Putin does not agree to a ceasefire soon, Mr Zelensky will be urging Australia to stick with the UK and Europe and their steadfast support of Ukraine.

Securing broader Western support for the long-haul, in the absence of US leadership and funding, will be critical for Ukraine and this is sure to be on the agenda.

However, sources cautioned that the meeting could easily be postponed or cancelled at the last minute as is often the case when so many world leaders gather and meetings and logistical arrangements can blow out.

This occurred on Saturday when the prime minister was due to meet Canada’s newly-elected prime minister Mark Carney, who like Mr Albanese, enjoyed a Trump bump in his recent election.

Instead the two centre-left leaders, who together ended 2024’s incumbency curse that tossed sitting government after sitting government out of office, are expected to meet on Sunday for a downgraded face-to-face catch up.

It is now likely that they will meet for a less formal encounter known as a “pull aside” when dozens of world leaders and high-level ministers are crammed in a holding room for one hour before the inaugural mass for Pope Leo XIV begins at the Vatican.

Surer to keep her commitment is the schedule-conscious German President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen who is due to meet Mr Albanese before he meets President Zelensky.

Australia and the EU are hoping to restart trade talks that fell over in 2024 but are now receiving new attention from both sides following US President Donald Trump’s trade war and unilateral tariffs imposed on countries, including the EU and Australia.

The pair have failed to connect on the phone this year, with the Prime Minister delaying their chat to deal with what the dumped Cabinet Minister Ed Husic labelled his “factional assassination” at the hands of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.

But one leader the prime minister appears in no immediate rush to encounter is Trump’s Vice President, James David Vance.

Mr Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will represent the Trump Administration.

Asked if he had sought at meeting with JD Vance, Mr Albanese was clear.

“No,” he said.

“Tomorrow morning there will be leaders gathered together and I’ll take the opportunity, if it arises, to introduce myself to the Vice President and along with other leaders.

“We have been, it’s been fairly rushed, obviously, the nature of this has been that some formal meetings are still trying to be bedded down in terms of times.”

This is a notable contrast between the eagerness to lock in meetings with Presidents Von der Leyen and Zelensky and the lukewarm enthusiasm to talk to the US Vice President.

The prime minister is sending a very clear message that he he will not be sucking up to the Trump Administration but is happy to talk if the possibility arises organically.

There’s a whiff of playing a little hard to get about it all and it is a a sign that he feels vindicated by his approach to Trump’s tariffs which was much criticised by the now-routed opposition.

Mr Albanese was speaking at an unscheduled press conference at Domus Australia, a pilgrim guest house in Rome where he was given a tour of the resplendent chapel by Archbishop Anthony Fisher from Sydney and Archbishop Peter Comensoli from Melbourne.

He arrived in Rome from Jakarta where he made his first post-election international trip to meet Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

Mr Albanese also made his comments about the sham sentencing of Australian man Oscar Jenkins who Russia has jailed for fighting for Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin illegally invaded in 2022.

”This sentence by Russia is an outrage,” the prime minister said.

“It is a continuation of the way that they have behaved, abrogating their international responsibilities.

“This conflict began with them choosing to invade a sovereign nation and to aggravate their responsibility to uphold international law.

“And so we’ll continue to advocate very strongly on behalf of Mr. Jenkins, and we don’t believe that this is a legitimate decision by a legal process in Russia, that is very politicised as we know.”

Speaking ahead of the inauguration, Mr Albanese said nothing would overshadow the magnitude of the new pontiff formally taking on the job.

But just like Pope Benedict’s funeral, no European event can take place without the war in Ukraine taking a leading role on centre stage.