Anthony Albanese touches down in New York City ahead of UNGA

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister is travelling to New York, where world leaders are meeting for the United Nations General Assembly. There's a lot on the agenda and the potential for a face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump.

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00:00I think it's concerning at this stage that we have no clarity in the fact that a face-to-face

00:06meeting with Donald Trump will happen at all. We just simply don't know. It seems like it's

00:10the 11th hour now.

00:13Yeah, it is strange, the fact that we've gone this long since the election or re-election

00:17of a US president without a meeting with the Australian leader. Normally these things happen

00:21far more frequently. And normally, yes, you know well in advance when they're going to

00:25happen. I think a lot of this does come down to some of the chaos, as it's described, around

00:29the White House and, you know, not knowing right up until the very last minute whether

00:33something is on or off. That was certainly the case in the lead up to the meeting that

00:36was meant to happen at the G7 in Canada. They found out late. But then at the last minute

00:41that was cancelled as well when Trump had to go deal with the issues around Iran. So right

00:46now it's still a bit unknown. Look, the Prime Minister's playing down all this talk about

00:50Willy Wadi and whether it really matters that he sits down. They've had a number of phone

00:53calls. That's all been warm and friendly and cooperative, we're told. But it is unusual

00:58not to have a face-to-face meeting. Trump has been posting about the fact that he'll

01:02have the Turkish president visiting him at the White House after this UN General Assembly.

01:06So he's finding room for other leaders, it seems. So it is looking a little odd. But

01:11at the end of the day, I think the Australian government's view is, well, you know, at least

01:14the tariffs that we're copying aren't as bad as the rest of the world. They're not too worried

01:19about where things are in the relationship in a practical sense. But clearly, the Prime Minister

01:24would like to have that face-to-face meeting at some point soon.

01:26We'll wait and see. Now, you mentioned their climate targets, also a big topic of discussion

01:30in New York. The government will also submit its 2035 emissions reduction target. What's

01:35been the response to those ambitions? It seems the coalition's united in condemning it, but

01:41others argue it doesn't go far enough.

01:44Yeah, I wouldn't say there's been a lot of global reaction to what Australia's done, at least

01:49not yet. We'll see what happens here at the UN. And certainly it's being pitched as, you

01:53know, pretty much in line with where the Europeans are at, a little more ambitious than the Canadians

01:59than the Kiwis, not quite as high as the UK's target. Certainly the US is something of an outlier

02:04though now, with Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and abandoning therefore that net

02:08zero target. So it's, look, another issue where Albanese is at odds with Trump on climate change,

02:15on Palestinian recognition and so on. But the domestic reaction to that target of 62 to 70 percent

02:21emissions reduction by 2035 was as you would expect. I mean, the Greens said not high enough,

02:26the coalition said too high. I think Susan Lee went particularly hard saying it's economy wrecking.

02:30She is under pressure from her own right flank over the net zero by 2050 issue. So I think wanted to

02:36show very, very quickly that they could stay united on the 2035 response at least. But the government's

02:42not troubled. They knew there would be criticism from both ends. They're happy to be pretty much,

02:46you know, as the PM called it, the sweet spot on this. I do think there are still a lot of questions,

02:51though, around how they achieve this target because it is ambitious. It will require a big step up in

02:57terms of emissions reduction, renewables rollout, more electric vehicles. So exactly how do they get

03:04there? I'll be talking to Chris Bowen on the program this morning here from the UN.

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