Donald Trump’s meeting of ‘major’ world leaders could prove make or break for Anthony Albanese

Donald Trump says he is likely to meet “some of the major” world leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week but did not specify if Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese fell into this category.

Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn on Saturday night local time, Mr Trump said everyone was requesting his attention.

“I’m going to meet with a lot of the leaders at the UN,” Mr Trump said, ahead of High Level week at the UN beginning Monday.

“They want to, probably 20, everybody wants to meet, but I’m one person.

“But we’re going to meet with quite a few of the leaders.

“I’m going to meet with some of the majors.”

It wasn’t clear if Mr Trump regards Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as “one of the majors.”

Last week, Mr Trump hinted at a possible face-to-face with the Australian leader when he berated the veteran ABC journalist John Lyons, who had asked about whether the President’s private business dealings were appropriate.

“Your leader is coming over to see me very soon,” President Trump told Lyons, having earlier said that “they (the Australians) wanna get along with me.”

A first confab would be a diplomatic breakthrough for Mr Albanese, who has not yet met the leader of Australia’s premier security ally, almost nine months since Mr Trump’s second inauguration and eleven months since last year’s Presidential election.

Whilst they have spoken on the phone four times, Mr Albanese has said he is waiting for summit season to have his first sit-down, rather than make a trip to the White House, like other world leaders, including Labour prime ministers Mark Carney of Canada and Keir Starmer of the UK.

Mr Trump had agreed to meet Mr Albanese and other leaders on the sidelines of the G7 in Canada, but cancelled at the last minute and returned to Washington DC to deal with the Iran strikes instead.

On Sunday, the Labor government continued to play down the prospect of any meeting with Mr Trump.

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen suggested to the ABC that Mr Albanese was achieving results, without having to meet the President.

“There are plenty of world leaders who’ve met with Donald Trump who haven’t had good outcomes, who’ve got very high tariffs, who’ve come over and had meetings and left optimistic and then have got high tariffs,” Mr Bowen said.

“The way Anthony Albanese has managed the relationship, we had the world’s lowest tariff on Australia.

“So results matter, results matter.

“The Prime Minister’s made it clear he’s very happy to meet, but results matter.

“And this Prime Minister and this Foreign Minister and this Government have delivered pretty good results when it comes to the bilateral relationship.”

The Trump Administration is conducting an “America First” review of AUKUS.

And despite King Charles III and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer both raising Australia’s submarine-aquisition project during the US President’s State visit to the UK last week, Mr Trump has not said whether it will go ahead or even if he favours the idea.

Mr Albanese also appeared to play down expectations of a Trump meeting this week and pointed to other upcoming opportunities.

“This week will be an opportunity to interact with leaders around the world,” he said.

“This is summit season, so there’ll be a range of other events in our own region, with APEC and ASEAN coming up.”

Mr Albanese will meet with the King of Jordan on Sunday.