Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia is ‘not subservient’ to the US after Donald Trump selfie

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told a US audience at a climate summit that Australia is not subservient to the United States after his first encounter with US President Donald Trump.

Mr Albanese requested a selfie with the US President during their casual meet at a reception Mr Trump held for more than 100 world leaders at the Lotte Hotel in New York on Tuesday night local time. The Labor leader posted the image to Instagram, saying that it was “good to chat” to Mr Trump.

He told the media on Wednesday morning, “We had a very warm and engaging chat. I tend not to broadcast private discussions, but it was very warm, and we look forward to a further discussion in a few weeks’ time.”

But speaking at a New York Times climate summit hours later, he said: “It’s not a subservient relationship, it’s a partnership that’s in the interests of both the United States and Australia as well as the UK.”

Mr Albanese has previously sought to distance Australia from the United States by saying the relationship is not one of subservience, but this is the first time he has said so on US soil.

And it comes at a delicate time with Mr Albanese heading to the White House next month for his first bilateral meeting with Australia’s security ally, at a time when the gap between Labor’s agenda and the Trump Administration’s on key issues such as climate change has only widened.

Mr Albanese met Mr Trump just hours after the White House confirmed an October 20 bilateral visit for Australia, the first one-on-one to take place after months of Australia trying to negotiate access.

Mr Albanese joked that he wished the AUKUS submarine project, which the Trump Administration is reviewing, cost $3 billion.

The Labor leader was speaking to a climate summit hosted by the New York Times on the final day of his four-day trip to The Big Apple before addressing the United Nations General Assembly.

He said he was “relaxed” about any new conditions that Mr Trump may impose on the deal struck for Australia to buy nuclear-powered submarines from the United States known as AUKUS.

“The review that’s taking place here, we’re relaxed about because we think it all stacks up,” he said.

“It’s in the interests of all three nations, Australia, the UK and the US, for this to progress.”

When the interviewer said the AUKUS submarines were worth $3 billion, Mr Albanese said he wished the price was that amount.

“Well, it’s a bit more than that, I wish it was $3 billion,” he said.

“It’s $3 billion in payments for the industrial capacity here in the US that we’re contributing.

“It’s many more times that amount.”

He also sought to get on the front foot amid frequent demands from the Pentagon that Australia raise its defence spending to the NATO standard of 3.5 per cent on GDP.

“We’ve put in an additional $70 billion into our defence budget since we were elected, over the next decade,” he said.

He swerved multiple invitations to criticise the US President’s rejection of climate change mitigation measures.

But he restated his warning, first made to The Nightly during the May election campaign, that the Trump Administration risked eroding its influence in the Pacific.

But he pointed to state government climate action, and singled out Mr Trump’s most vocal Democratic critic Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California as continuing to take action.

Mr Newsom met Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen and Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Kevin Rudd on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Mr Newsom posted a picture on social media of he and Mr Rudd hugging.

“For the Pacific, I think action on climate change is the entry fee to credibility and to engagement,” he said.

Asked if he saw China taking advantage of the United States’ retreat on climate change, Mr Albanese said: “Of course.”

“China, of course, will use any position that they came to increase their relative influence.

He also offered rare criticism of China, while praising their decarbonisation goals, saying he would like to see Beijing’s climate goals go further.

“No, we’d like to see them do more; we’d like to see new coal-fired power plants not opened, but it is a step forward,” he said.

But Mr Albanese praised China’s dominance of the electric car market as a “revolution.”

Mr Albanese is due to address the United Nations General Assembly in coming hours.