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2h agoHere's a recap
If you're just waking up, good morning. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and United States President Donald Trump have met at the White House.
It marks the first formal bilateral talks between the two leaders since Trump's re-election in November last year, and follows multiple phone conversations between the pair, and a brief meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
During the meeting, Albanese and Trump signed an agreement on rare earths and critical minerals. The US is seeking more access to the resource as China, which controls around 70 per cent of mining and 90 per cent of processing, tightens its grip on exports.
Albanese described the agreement as an "$8.5 billion pipeline that we have ready to go" while signing the deal, which involves the processing of minerals.
Some other key moments:
It marks the first formal bilateral talks between the two leaders since Trump's re-election in November last year, and follows multiple phone conversations between the pair, and a brief meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
During the meeting, Albanese and Trump signed an agreement on rare earths and critical minerals. The US is seeking more access to the resource as China, which controls around 70 per cent of mining and 90 per cent of processing, tightens its grip on exports.
Albanese described the agreement as an "$8.5 billion pipeline that we have ready to go" while signing the deal, which involves the processing of minerals.
Some other key moments:
- Trump appeared to reaffirm the stability of the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the UK and the US, which would give Australia nuclear submarines. The deal, announced in 2021 under the Biden administration, has been under review by the US. But Trump said the plan was "moving along rapidly" and there were only "minor details" to be worked out, assuring Australia was "getting them" when asked about the submarines.
- There was a moment of tension after a journalist brought up disparaging comments about Trump that Australia's ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, had made before his appointment. Rudd was in the room at the time, and after trying to explain, was quickly cut off by Trump, who said "I don't like you either".
- Rudd wasn't the only one to face the president's scorn. Trump called one Australian journalist a "nasty guy" but allowed him to ask a question.
- That question was about what it was like for Trump to deal with Albanese, after having previously worked with two Australian prime ministers in his first term on the "same side" of politics as Trump: Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull. Trump said it "wouldn't be fair" to compare the leaders, but that Albanese was doing a "really good job" and the pair have had a good relationship. "I don't want to compare one with the other, but they really have a great prime minister." Albanese joked he would use Trump's remarks in campaign ads at the next election in 2028.
- Albanese praised Trump's role in helping to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, calling it an "extraordinary achievement".
- Trump defended the tariffs Australian exports are subject to — including a baseline 10 per cent rate and 50 per cent on steel and aluminium — saying they were "very light".
- The US president also said Albanese had invited him to visit Australia earlier that day, an offer her was giving "serious consideration". Trump said he had been to Australia before and played one of its "great golf courses".
