Donald Trump praises ‘great’ Washington meeting with Anthony Albanese as leaders dine at Apec | Apec summit

After a long wait to meet with Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese did so twice in 10 days as his US counterpart talked about cooperation on rare earths and other issues.

Albanese followed up his trip to Washington last week by sitting next to the US president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Wednesday evening.

Eight leaders, including the prime ministers of New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam, attended the dinner held in the tourist town before Trump’s highly anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Addressing the assembled officials, Trump reserved some of his strongest praise for the Australian prime minister sitting next to him.

“We had a great meeting a week ago,” the US president said, referring to their meeting in Washington.

“You’ve done a great job… We work together on rare earths, but we also work together on a lot of things and everything is going very well.”

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Albanese warmly greeted his American counterpart and shook his hand as the leaders gathered for the official photo.

The Prime Minister’s visit to the White House last week was widely hailed as a success after the two leaders signed a multibillion-dollar deal that will give the US greater access to Australia’s critical mineral reserves.

Speaking to reporters at the Apec summit, Albanese said he hoped trade tensions between China and the USA would decrease.

“We want to see a positive outcome,” the Prime Minister said on Thursday.

“The US and China have an important role as the two major economic powers in our region. These are important relationships for Australia.”

Albanese refused to support Trump’s declaration that tariffs were good for US alliances, saying Australia believed free and fair trade was good for the world.

“We believe the more open trade is, the better it will be for the global economy and for Australia,” he said.

Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung finalized details of the fraught trade deal on Wednesday.

“We’ve made our deal, we’ve pretty much finalized it,” Trump said in his opening remarks to a dinner with Lee and other regional leaders. He did not provide details about the agreement, and neither did the White House.

Amid US tensions with Canada over an anti-tariff ad, Trump said he would not speak to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney for a while, even though they were both at the summit.

“I tell those who ask, we did not come to South Korea to see Canada!” Trump wrote at Truth Social.

However, Carney and Trump were sitting at the same table at dinner. They sat on opposite sides and greeted each other as they sat down.

The Apec summit is the latest stop in a diplomatic firestorm that has seen Albanese travel in recent weeks to the US (twice), the UK, the UAE, Malaysia and now South Korea.

Asked if he would attend the COP30 leaders’ summit in Brazil in November, Albanese said Australia would be represented there and would instead join parliament in the second week of the two-week meeting.

“I am sometimes amused by the conflicting messages from the Australian media saying I should do more international travel,” he said.

“But when I do that, they tell me I should do less.”

Australia is bidding to host the 2026 Cop along with Pacific nations, but Türkiye has launched a rival bid for the summit.

If the stalemate over hosting is not resolved by the end of this year’s Polis, the rights will revert to Bonn, Germany.