Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and US President Donald Trump will not be lacking conversation topics when they meet at the White House later this week.
There's Mr Trump's apparent softening stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as his Republican congressional colleagues and farmers across America call for the president to sign back up to the huge free trade deal with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and seven other nations.
There is also the alarming picture painted by the president's pick for US Ambassador to Australia, Admiral Harry Harris, last week about China's rapid military expansion and the belief North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's pursuit of nuclear weapons is aimed at blackmailing South Korea into reunifying into a single Communist nation.
The Australian foreign policy white paper and the US National Defense Strategy both view China and Russia as potential threats to global security.
Also in the works is a joint regional infrastructure scheme led by the US, Australia, India and Japan to counter China's One Belt One Road initiative and the proposed "quad" Indo-Pacific security alliance between the four nations.
Immigration could be a talking point, with Mr Trump's administration repeatedly praising Australia's merit-based immigration as better for the US than its green card lottery.
"You are worse than I am," Mr Trump, while discussing Australia's strict refugee policy, told the prime minister in their infamous phone call in January last year.
Australia was also praised by White House officials for its infrastructure building asset recycling programs, something the prime minister's delegation of state premiers and business leaders is keen to talk up.
Gun control - Australia's success and America's indifference - could hover over the talks with teenage student survivors of last week's Parkland, Florida school shooting massacre launching a nationwide campaign for change.
And, of course, no matter how careful the schedule is planned for Friday's meeting at the White House, Mr Turnbull's visit always has the potential to be derailed by a single Trump tweet, a new porn star scandal, a Washington Post exclusive or a new indictment delivered by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Mr Turnbull is scheduled to land in Washington DC on Wednesday and depart Saturday.
The theme this week: 100 Years of Mateship.
It is 100 years since Australian and US troops first fought side by side in France at the Battle of Hamel in 1918 under the command of Australian General Sir John Monash.
Australian Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey described the prime minister's delegation of Australian government and business leaders as the most significant to visit the US.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan, Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner will be in DC.
They will join Mr Turnbull on Saturday at the US National Governors Association Winter Meetings, attended by more than 40 American state governors.
