Australia s Albanese says he will press AUKUS Indo Pacific security in Trump meeting

SYDNEY - Increasing the number of nuclear-powered submarines operated by Australia, Britain and the United States will make the Indo Pacific more secure and was in the United States’ interests, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on June 16.

Mr Albanese will meet US President Donald Trump for the first time on June 17 in Calgary on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting, with tariffs and Washington’s snap review of the Aukus treaty to transfer nuclear submarines to Australia weighing on the talks.

“Having Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States all having increased nuclear-powered submarines, in our case conventionally armed, is something that will make the Indo Pacific area more secure,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Calgary.

“That is in the interests of the United States,” he added.

Mr Albanese said he will highlight to Mr Trump the financial support Australia is providing to the US industrial capacity to build new submarines under Aukus, the access the US submarine fleet will gain to maintenance yards in Australia, and the existing US military presence in Australia’s northern city of Darwin.

Australia was a trusted US partner in the Pacific region to promote peace and security, he said.

Mr Albanese has rebuffed a US request to commit to lifting defence spending from 2 per cent to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product, saying instead Australia would spend what was needed for its defence capability.

Around 10 per cent of Australia’s steel and aluminium is exported to the United States, and Mr Albanese said he would also raise the issue of Mr Trump’s tariffs on the sector, which Australia views as “acts of economic self harm”.

“Exports are still going in there, they are just paying more for them,” he told reporters.

Mr Albanese met with Canada’s Prime Minister Mark