Albanese’s first meeting today was with G7 host, Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney, shortly after touching down.
“Currently, Canada ranks as the eighth largest investor in Australia, and I believe there’s room for that to expand,” Albanese stated during his media address.
“We did discuss deepening defence engagement, including Canada’s proposed procurement of Australian ‘over the horizon’ radar technology.”
Australia is attending the G7 as an “outreach partner”, an invitation that has now been extended multiple times in recent years.
Before heading to Calgary, where the event is taking place, it was confirmed that Albanese had arranged a meeting with US President Donald Trump. This will mark their first in-person encounter.
“The discussion with President Trump I expect will be very much about Australia and the United States, and our relations,” Albanese said.
“That will be very much the focus. We’ve got a few things to talk about.”
The recent announcement of the US review of the AUKUS trilateral security pact, alongside the ongoing tariff discussions, are expected to be some of the key topics.
On tariffs, Albanese again categorised the policy as “economic self-harm”.
“I would hope that over a period of time, the United States revisits that position, and we’ll continue to advocate that on steel and aluminium,” he said.
“I think that we will continue to put forward our position there as well that there aren’t increased steel production facilities which have appeared since January in the United States.”
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And he said AUKUS was of benefit to all three nations involved – the US, Australia, and the UK.
“What AUKUS offers the United States is firstly, the support that we’re providing for their industrial capacity,” he said.
“Secondly, the increased capacity to have their subs in the water as well because of the maintenance facilities that will take place at Henderson.
“In addition to that, there’s all of the support that we give to the United States and with our defence relationships, including fuel reserves in the Northern Territory, including the presence of US forces in Darwin as well.”
Albanese will also meet with other world leaders on the summit sidelines, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Antonio Costa.
