The White House has made clear to Chinese officials that President Xi Jinping should request a call with Trump. But Beijing has repeatedly refused to arrange a leader-level phone call.

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an earlier meeting had overran and went on to blame Italian traffic. Others say Mr Putin keeps other leaders waiting to stamp his authority on the world stage.

Seven months in the making, Anthony Albanese told reporters that he had prepared extensively to finally meet with US ...