Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump ‘don’t have to be friends’
Malcolm Turnbull is on his way to New York for his first meeting with Donald trump. Photo: AAP
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull don’t have to become best friends, but she expects the pair will find they have much in common.
Mr Turnbull landed in New York Thursday morning ahead of a meeting with Mr Trump on the sidelines of an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea – their first meeting since an infamous heated phone call earlier in the year.
“They don’t have to be best friends, but of course they will be gracious towards each other,” Ms Bishop told ABC Radio ahead of Mr Turnbull’s arrival in the Big Apple on Thursday (US time).
“I have no doubt that the Prime Minister and President Trump will find a lot in common, I’m sure they’ll get along well.”
Ms Bishop said the pair’s initial phone call in January, which Mr Trump reportedly cut short and described as the worst call to a world leader that day, should not be overstated.
“It was a new administration, briefings were coming from across the administration and there was a moment when the president expressed less than admiration for an agreement that the previous administration has entered into,” she said.
The important thing was the Trump administration honouring the agreement to take refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
She also said she was sure the President understands the US-Australian relationship is more important than who occupies the White House.
Mr Turnbull is scheduled to touch down in New York on Thursday afternoon (AEST) and will spend less than 48 hours in the city before jetting back to Canberra for next week’s Budget.
He will embark on a full day and evening of events on Friday, including a bilateral meeting with Mr Trump.
“It will be a discussion and it will be a discussion and a meeting and an engagement, and I have had several calls with him already,” Mr Turnbull told SBS TV on Wednesday night.
The North Korea nuclear threat is expected to be at the top of the agenda.
Despite January’s phone call in which Mr Trump reportedly blasted Mr Turnbull over the US refugee resettlement deal, the Prime Minister expects he will get on well with the president.
Mr Trump described the deal, struck last year by Mr Turnbull and then president Barack Obama, as a “dumb deal” in a February Twitter post but has since reluctantly agreed to accept refugees held on Nauru and Manus Island if they pass what he describes as extreme vetting.
The highlight of the trip will likely be a black tie dinner on the decommissioned USS Intrepid aircraft carrier on the Hudson River to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the US-Australian Battle of the Coral Sea victory over Japan.
Money raised from the dinner will go towards creating an American-Australian veterans’ scholarship fund for disabled veterans to pursue undergraduate or postgraduate study in each other’s countries.
Mr Turnbull’s meeting with Mr Trump in New York will be the first time the president is returning to Manhattan since taking office.
Several protests are planned across New York City, including near the USS Intrepid and his home at Trump Tower, threatening to snarl Manhattan’s streets and produce images of a city rejecting one of its own.
– With AAP/AP