Albanese at the White House: Trump endorses Aukus, signs $8.5bn rare earths deal and calls PM ‘great leader’ | Australian politics

Donald Trump has strongly backed the Aukus pact and praised prime minister Anthony Albanese as a “great” leader, but the president’s navy secretary said the US might want to “clarify some ambiguities” in the nuclear submarine deal.

Trump and Albanese also signed a multibillion-dollar deal for Australia to supply critical minerals to the United States, amid a deepening trade war as China threatens to cut off supplies of rare earth elements. But the president also downplayed the possibility of reducing tariffs on Australian goods.

“We actually have a lot of submarines. We have the best submarines in the world and we are currently building a few more under construction and now we are starting, we have everything set up with Anthony.” [Albanese]” said Trump.

“We’ve worked long and hard on this and we’re starting that process right now. I think it’s moving really fast, it’s very good… we’re keeping them moving really fast.”

In a wide-ranging 35-minute press conference at the White House ahead of the first official meeting between the two, Trump reassured Aukus of his future and said America had no better friend than Australia, but told ambassador Kevin Rudd, “I don’t like you,” after his past comments about the president were brought up.

Rudd later apologized to Trump.

Commenting almost entirely positively on Australia and his relationship with the prime minister, Trump did not repeat previous demands that Albanese’s government increase defense spending, and Albanese suggested that Trump visit Australia for the President’s Cup golf tournament in Melbourne in 2028.

Albanese met with Trump on Monday morning local time (early Tuesday morning Aedt) in the White House cabinet room for the long-awaited first bilateral meeting. Nine months after Trump’s inauguration, and after several phone calls between the pair, Albanese sat between the president and vice-president J.D. Vance at the cabinet table at a meeting that also included war secretary Pete Hegseth, foreign secretary Marco Rubio, Rudd and Australian ministers Tim Ayres and Madeleine King.

After the meeting, Trump hosted Albanese for a working dinner.

Australia had sought an explicit endorsement of the Aukus Pact and a $368 billion plan for Australia to buy nuclear-powered submarines from the United States, as well as an exemption from Trump’s trade tariffs. The signing of the critical minerals agreement, under which Australia and the US will offer at least US$1 billion for projects in both countries, was seen as a major strategic win by Australia; Trump and Albanese signed the agreement in Trump’s cabinet room.

A framework agreement distributed by the Australian government said the two countries would work together on “coordinated investment to accelerate the development of diversified, liquid, fair markets for critical minerals and rare earth elements”. The agreement says they will work together on mining and processing, including mobilizing government and private sector support through guarantees, loans or equity; departure arrangements; insurance; or regulatory facilitation. The agreement will set out price mechanisms, including a floor price, and will also include a commitment to establish or increase mechanisms to “review and deter” asset sales “on national security grounds.”

Albanese described the agreement as a “truly important day” that would take Australia-US relations “to the next level”.

“This is an $8.5 billion pipeline that we’re ready to get going. We’re just getting started,” Albanese said.

Trump added: “About a year from now we’ll have so many critical minerals and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them.”

Trump asked Navy Secretary John Phelan to talk about Aukus at the beginning of the meeting. Phelan called Australia “a very important ally of ours in the Indo-Pacific” and appeared to be referring to the Henderson naval base in Fremantle, saying it was “crucial to our ability to demonstrate force with our allies”.

“I think what we’re really trying to do is take this framework and improve it for all three parties, clarify some of the ambiguities in the previous agreement. So this should be a win-win for everyone,” he said.

Phelan did not provide further details. Later asked for comment by Guardian Australia, Trump said these would be “minor details” and that “no further explanation should be made… we are in full swing with construction.”

Asked about his own administration’s comments, including Hegseth, calling for a massive increase in Australian defense spending, Trump instead praised Australia’s record in building “spectacular holding pads for submarines.”

“I always want more but they [Australia] They have to do what they have to do. You can only do so much. “I think they’re great,” he said.

“They’re building a huge pier because they have a lot of ships and a lot of stuff going on. And I think their military is very strong, too.”

But when asked whether Australia would receive an exemption from trade tariffs, Trump said it would not be reviewed and noted: “Australia pays one of the lowest tariffs.”