Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull's meeting on a retired aircraft carrier in New York will be more than just a spectacular photo opportunity.

The meeting, on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea, will set the tone of Australia's relationship with Trump's America — a friendship that got off to a rocky start when the pair shared a tense phone call earlier in the year.

The director of the Australia-China Relations Institute and former foreign minister, Bob Carr, has told Lateline that an appropriate distance has now been put between Mr Trump's election and the two leaders' first face-to-face meeting.

"I think a bit of dignified distance is what Australian people would want, given the controversial, unpredictable, somewhat offensive nature of the Trump presidency to Australian tastes," he said.

So, with defence and trade likely to dominate the talks, just what might Mr Trump ask of his ally?

More Marines in northern Australia?

Maybe even US Air Force planes as well, according to the Lowy Institute's Alan Dupont.

"To look at Australia as a kind of defence sanctuary for the US defence force," he told Lateline.

"There are possibilities for more bombers, the B-1 bomber for example, perhaps rotating through Australia.

"There's an airfield just outside Katherine that's ready-made for the bomber to use. So they're the sorts of possibilities."

He said less likely was the possibility of US rotating nuclear submarines or aircraft carriers through Western Australia.

"I think that's a bridge too far. It'd be politically contentious and I don't think Australia is really well equipped in infrastructure terms to deal with that," he said.

A US Marine looks out the side of a UH-1Y Huey helicopter during training in the Top End last year. ( Supplied: US Marines )

Missile defence will loom large

Most likely for on board Australia's three new air warfare destroyers.

"The question will be, do we fit these missiles onto the ships? What will be the cost of that? How will that be integrated into the system that the Japanese and the Americans use? What will be the political implications of that?" Professor Dupont asked.

He said the other question was whether China would be hostile to such a move.

Australian soldiers in Afghanistan?

While Australia's military presence in Iraq and Syria is likely to wind down this year, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating.

"There's a problem there. We've been there before. The Americans have very high regard for our special forces — so there's a possibility there," Professor Dupont said.

But there's an upside...

Australian defence hardware and tech businesses can now apply for US defence industry contracts as locals.

Mr Trump is keen to rejuvenate US hardware and overnight, while presenting a trophy to the US Air Force Academy football team, he touted a $US21 billion deal to build-up the military.

"We are at last reversing years of military cuts and showing our determination and resolve to the entire world," he said.

Thanks to legislative changes in the last two months, Australia is now considered part of the US national technology and industrial base.

Just don't ask...

Mr Turnbull will not want to be asked to sail or fly in freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea.

"That would obviously be seen as very provocative by the Chinese and I think that will be a real problem for Prime Minister Turnbull to work out what his response would be," Professor Dupont said.

"Caught between a rock and a hard place, so to speak."

What about North Korea?

The rogue state has been a major headache for the past three US presidents, and Mr Trump no longer wants North Korea to threaten security in the region and he's demanded China intervene.

Former US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich told Lateline that people don't know what Mr Trump is capable of.

"As a result I think [China's] President Xi Jinping has learned that this is a more volatile situation than China has had to manage in the past, where one actor was somewhat predictable and one was somewhat predictably unpredictable," he said.

Bates Gill, the author of China Matters: Getting It Right For Australia, warned this could put Australia in a precarious situation.

"If this spun out of control into a real conflict on the North Korean peninsula, Australia would almost have to be involved in some way, at a minimum at helping the United States in the delivery of intelligence," he said.

"I think the most important thing that Australia, all the important allies in this region, need to try and achieve most of all, is gaining better clarity and certainty about where this White House is going in relation to some very serious and very, very dangerous situations in relation to North Korea."