NICOLA SMITH: The Hague reasons why Anthony Albanese should attend NATO summit even if Donald Trump doesn't

The Prime Minister is prevaricating over attending a NATO summit in the Hague next week but as an already unstable world faces a fresh injection of volatility there is no doubt he should be in the room.

Regardless of whether US President Donald Trump attends the NATO heads of state and government meeting or not, Anthony Albanese should not miss the chance to join other world leaders as they discuss deterrence during the latest twists of geopolitical churn.

With an unpredictable commander-in-chief steering US foreign policy and the convergence of European and Indo-Pacific security interests, Australia needs to deepen its alliances with a network of allies at every opportunity.

Mr Albanese’s presence alongside his counterparts will only reinforce the optics of Australia as a serious and major player in the strategic Indo-Pacific region at a critical juncture for global security.

In attending the Hague summit, the Prime Minister would be joining three of Australia’s most important regional defence partners, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, also non-NATO nations who are all invited under the “Indo-Pacific Four” (IP4) arrangement.

The IP4 leaders have attended the NATO summit since 2022, in a nod to the overlapping interests of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific zones at a time when Russia is at war with Ukraine, Middle East tensions spiking, and China is undertaking an unprecedented military build-up.

As leaders gathered at the Madrid summit in July 2022 to boost military and security cooperation on common challenges including cyber and maritime defence, Ukraine was only four months into its battle for survival against invading Russian forces.

Three years on, the world is a more dangerous place. North Korea has provided troops and missiles to Russia and China stands accused of building up Vladimir Putin’s war machine with critical components while expanding its own territorial ambitions. The Middle East is on the brink of a protracted and devastating conflict.

In these circumstances, why would Australia’s Prime Minister not personally join the global conversation?

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon have confirmed their attendance, while South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae-myung is also expected to make the trip.

Japan’s former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was one of the first to explicitly draw the link between deterrence in Europe and Asia.

“I myself have a strong sense of urgency that Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” Mr Kishida told the Shangri-La defence dialogue in Singapore in June 2022 — a forum focussed on rising tensions with China over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

That geographical link is being fortified with military and diplomatic cooperation.

The UK-led Carrier Strike Group en route to Australia to take part in July’s Talisman Sabre drill is spearheaded by British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales and joined by allied warships from Canada, Norway, Spain and New Zealand.

On a diplomatic front, Australia agreed at the G7 summit in Canada this week to start talks with the European Union on a new security and defence partnership.

Events in Europe and the Middle East were “absolutely intertwined” with Indo-Pacific security, explained Gabriele Visentin, EU Ambassador to Australia, on ABC Radio National Breakfast. “We have to step up our cooperation.”

Former Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo said, “Eurasian security, the security of Europe and Asia, is an intrinsically integrated problem,” pointing to “collusion and collaboration” between Russia, Iran, China and North Korea.

If democracies were subjugated or defeated by Eurasian powers, these powers would “dominate the largest land mass, the greatest extent of resources, and the bulk of the world’s population, from Europe to the Pacific,” he told The Nightly.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged the importance of Australian representation at the NATO summit as the world reaches a “dangerous point.”

“This is a very unstable time in the world … and we really need to work with other countries to do all we can to protect peace, security, and stability,” she told ABC Adelaide on Thursday.

But while confirming the Prime Minister’s attendance was under consideration, Senator Wong left the door open to sending another senior minister.

Travelling to the Hague is not without its domestic political risks for Mr Albanese.

Another failed attempt to secure his first meeting with President Trump would be seized on by the Opposition. Joining the summit would also expose him to further difficult demands to ramp up Australia’s defence spending as European nations bolster their own military budgets.

But to view the NATO summit primarily through the prism of possible facetime with Mr Trump is missing the wider point.

As the world enters another moment of peril, the Australian Prime Minister’s voice needs to be heard among his peers.