Anthony Albanese has been left off Donald Trump’s official meeting schedule this week at the UN general assembly in New York.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, Australian time, that the US president would hold bilateral meetings with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Union boss Ursula von der Leyen.
But no meeting with Albanese is planned, leaving the prime minister to compete for face time at a reception hosted by the US president, along with hundreds of other world leaders.
Trump will also meet Argentina’ president Javier Milei, and hold multilateral meetings with the leaders of Pakistan, Indonesia and a group of Middle Eastern countries.
Australian officials had played down the prospect of a meeting with Trump while Albanese is in the US this week. The pair had been due to meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada in June but Trump returned to Washington a day early to manage the Middle East war.
A White House meeting had been mooted but Trump’s schedule was truncated by the memorial service for assassinated political activist Charlie Kirk in Arizona on Sunday.
Albanese said he would speak to Trump at the reception hosted by the US leader and First Lady Melania Trump on Wednesday night, local time. His partner, Jodie Haydon, will also attend the event.
“I’ll be talking with him there,” Albanese told Channel Seven this week.
Last week he said: “We will meet when we meet.”
Albanese has also flagged a possible sit down with the US leader at the Apec summit in South Korea in October.
Trump is due to fly back to Washington after the reception. He will host Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, at the White House later this week.
The White House has criticised Australia and other countries recognising Palestinian statehood at the UN this week.
“The president has been very clear: he disagrees with this decision,” Leavitt said.
“He feels this does not do anything to release the hostages, which is the primary goal right now in Gaza.
She said recognition did nothing to help end the way.
“Frankly, he believes it’s a reward to Hamas. He believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies.”
Albanese is preparing to address a special conference on the two-state solution at the UN headquarters, hosted by French president Emmanuel Macron.
He formally recognised Palestine on Sunday, prompting a furious response from Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
