ANDREW GREENE: Anthony Albanese’s delicate diplomacy balancing act laid bare by Xi and Trump’s latest talks

There is never an easy time for an Australian Prime Minister to head overseas for meetings with world leaders, and Anthony Albanese’s hectic international travel schedule for the remainder of the year coincides with a deepening cost of living crisis at home.

This week the Reserve Bank is likely to lift interest rates once again, and some economists believe there’ll be at least one hike before Christmas, bringing the country’s official cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.6 per cent.

It’s a politically fraught environment for any leader to be seen boarding planes to fly around the world but international diplomacy remains an essential part of any Prime Minister’s job description.

In New York last week the PM was part of important discussions on some of the most pressing problems facing Australia and other like-minded nations, but as often is the case, the most consequential conversations were arguably held outside the United Nations.

Last week President Donald Trump also hosted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a three-day state visit to Washington, DC, where the pair discussed significant topics such as concerns on AI and the war in Iran.

Following the talks, the US Ambassador to China David Perdue made the extraordinary revelation that President Trump had offered to sell weapons to China during the meeting, a scenario later played down by US officials.

“President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point,” the diplomat told Fox News on Sunday.

If the candid account given by the senior diplomat is accurate, one can only imagine the disbelief of the official Chinese translator relaying Trump’s offer to the Chinese leader, or indeed President Xi’s reaction to it.

Australians are regularly reminded by politicians and officials that this country faces its most complex and challenging strategic environment since the Second World War.

Just two months ago the Chinese military successfully tested a submarine-launched nuclear capable ballistic missile into waters of the Pacific Ocean, prompting widespread condemnation.

It seems virtually unthinkable the President of the United States, Australia’s closest and oldest military ally, could be contemplating future arms sales to China, a nation which security experts warn now poses the greatest threat to peace and stability in this region.

“Alliances are essentially confidence tricks, for their members and those they are lined up against,” Greens Senator David Shoebridge observes.

“In 2026 no one can seriously have confidence in the US as Trump behaves in wildly irrational ways. I know that some in Labor are trying to hunker down and make it through this Presidency to get back to ‘business as normal’ that is a fantasy, you cannot unscramble an egg.” “It becomes increasingly embarrassing to see Labor maintain the rhetoric of ‘rules based international order’ when the Prime Minister is out there grabbing a selfie with Trump just after he threatened to set the world on fire,” Senator Shoebridge adds.

While accepting his “Global Citizen” award from the Atlantic Council last week at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, Albanese acknowledged the post-World War Two global order was “no longer fit for purpose”.

“The most consequential factor shaping the Indo-Pacific is the strategic competition between the United States and China,” Mr Albanese told the star-studded black-tie event.

“Our alliance with the United States is the anchor of Australia’s foreign policy. For our largest trading partner, China, our approach is clear: co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest.”

The Australian government remains fully invested in the US alliance and the AUKUS partnership with Washington, but the continually unpredictable behaviour of President Trump does harm confidence, even among close supporters.

President Trump has confirmed he will meet twice more this year with Xi Jinping, firstly at November’s APEC meeting being hosted in China, and then at the G20 gathering of world leaders in Miami, Florida.

Despite growing political pressures at home, Anthony Albanese is also expected to head to both gatherings later this year and will again seek to hold meaningful discussions with the US and Chinese leaders.

But in 2026 the mantra of “co-operate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest”, can seem almost as difficult a task with the United States as it has been with China over recent years.