The Middle East crisis is likely to dominate Anthony Albanese’s state visit to Washington, even if his stay adds another chapter in Australian-US strategic intimacy.
All of a sudden the prime minister’s state visit to Washington looks less like the grand event it might have been.. Wherever Albanese goes in the American capital, that trauma will cast a long shadow over his discussions. He will, after all, be the first leader of a major US ally to hear first-hand about President Biden’s Israel visit.
But the Albanese trip has its own innate complications, which go beyond the tensions and rage fanning across the Middle East and the world from the shock Hamas attacks on October 7.They relate firstly to frustrations on the Australian side with the lack of movement in Congress on restrictions to the sharing of sensitive military technology with Australia – the linchpin of the AUKUS agreement.
Taking the longer view, the prime minister’s time in Washington should also be seen against the backdrop of what lies ahead for him over the next month, as he looks to land in Beijing and then San Francisco for APEC. Washington knows, too, that China is determined to move its relationship with Australia beyond “stabilisation”. They would have noted the Chinese eagerness to clear the decks in terms of the remaining trade tariffs before Albanese visits, the desire to clothe Albanese in the garb of Gough Whitlam’s historic visit 50 years ago. Nothing could be surer to niggle at American sensitivities.
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