Australia’s Albanese to discuss rare earths, security in first Trump summit

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold his first summit with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Oct 20, targeting a bigger US commitment to Australia’s critical minerals sector as China tightens control over global supply.

The centre-left Australian leader also expects to discuss nuclear submarines, trade and Indo Pacific stability with his security ally, his office said. Mr Albanese has travelled to Washington with his minister for resources, but not the foreign and defence ministers.

The Trump Administration is reviewing the A$368 billion (S$310 billion) Aukus treaty that will see Australia buy US nuclear-powered submarines in 2032 before building a new submarine class with Britain.

Australian officials have said they are confident Aukus will proceed, with Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles last week saying he knew when the review would conclude.

“Australia and the United States have stood shoulder-to-shoulder in every major conflict for over a century,” Mr Albanese, re-elected in May for a second term, said in a statement on Oct 20.

‘Cooperative, professional, hopefully warm’ relationship

Ahead of the meeting on Oct 20 between the two leaders, Australian officials have emphasised Canberra is paying its way under Aukus, contributing US$2 billion (S$2.6 billion) in 2025 to boost production rates at US submarine shipyards, and preparing to maintain US Virginia-class submarines at its Indian Ocean naval base from 2027.

The delay of 10 months in an official meeting since Mr Trump took office has caused some anxiety in Australia as the Pentagon urged Canberra to lift defence spending.

The two leaders met briefly on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.

Australia is willing to sell shares in its planned strategic reserve of critical minerals to allies including Britain, Reuters reported in September, as Western governments scramble to end their reliance on China for rare earths and minor metals.

Top US officials last week condemned Beijing’s expansion of rare earth export controls as a

threat to global supply chains

. China is the world’s biggest producer of the materials that are vital materials for products ranging from electric vehicles to aircraft engines and military radars.

Resource-rich Australia, wanting to extract and process rare earths, put preferential access to its strategic reserve on the table in US trade negotiations in April.

Mr Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney, said the “mood music is good” for the summit, and “the outstanding bilateral issues are not terribly serious.

“The most important thing is for Mr Albanese to establish a cooperative, professional and hopefully warm relationship with the president,” he said.

Maintaining stable economic ties with China

The United States has a large trade surplus with Australia, which is among the countries with the lowest US tariff.

Australia’s biggest trade partner is China, with exports of iron ore and coal long underpinning its national budget, despite efforts by Albanese’s government to diversify export markets after Beijing’s US$20 billion boycott of Australian agriculture and coal from 2020 to 2023.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who held talks with Mr Trump’s economic adviser Kevin Hassett on critical minerals, told reporters in Washington on Oct 17 that Canberra wanted to do more with the United States, while maintaining a stable economic relationship with China.

“We know that American companies desperately need critical minerals, and Australia is very well placed to service that need,” he said. REUTERS