Anthony Albanese lands back in Australia a rock star after successful meeting with Trump
A detail in pictures of Anthony Albanese stepping off the plane at Sydney Airport tells you everything you need to know.
Anthony Albanese appeared every bit the triumphant rock star prime minister as he stepped off the plane wearing a band T-shirt upon his return to Australia from his well-received White House meeting with Donald Trump.
Mr Albanese looked confident and relaxed as he touched down at Sydney Airport donning a casual, black and white Joy Division T-shirt after seemingly emerging from the Oval Office unscathed – unlike his Ukrainian and South African counterparts who had recently gone before him.
Mr Albanese had faced mounting pressure to not only score an invitation to a formal meeting with the US President – but also to ensure he didn’t then blow it.
It was ultimately a pressure test he passed, with Mr Trump signing a deal on rare earth minerals with Mr Albanese, and reaffirming that Washington’s key ally would get its coveted nuclear-powered attack submarines. Even former Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull rating his performance a “10/10”.
During the highly-anticipated meeting, Mr Trump sang Mr Albanese’s praises, claiming he was doing a “fantastic job as the Prime Minister” and referred to him as a “friend” and Australia as an “amazing ally”.
“They’ve really got a great Prime Minister,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Albanese laughed and responded: “I’ll use it in my ads in 2028”.
The two leaders met at the White House to concentrate on defence and critical minerals – in which Washington and Canberra are co-operating against what they view as an increasingly assertive China.
Mr Albanese said the rare earths deal would lead to $8.5 billion in critical minerals projects in Australia and take relations to the “next level.”
The White House later released a glowing video on its official social media channels to highlight the rapport between the leaders.
The montage of the landmark meeting featured footage of the pair accompanied by uplifting music.
“A lot of friends over there and this is one of them right here,” Mr Trump said in the clip as he gestured towards Mr Albanese.
“We work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals and lots of other things.”
The Australian Prime Minister has touted his country’s abundant critical minerals as a way to loosen China’s grip over global supplies of rare earths, which are vital for tech products.
Government figures show Australia is among the world’s top five producers of lithium, cobalt and manganese – used in everything from semiconductors to defence hardware, electric cars and wind turbines.
China is easily the world’s largest refiner of lithium and nickel, and has a near monopoly on the processing of other rare earth elements.
Analysts have said Australia is unlikely to challenge this dominance – but does offer a reliable, albeit smaller pipeline that lessens the risk of relying on China.
The Australian government said it and the US government would each invest more than $1 billion over the next six months, while the White House put the figure at $3 billion between the two countries.
Mr Albanese had also been pushing for progress on the stalled 2021 AUKUS submarine deal between Australia, the United Kingdom and the US.
Crucially, Mr Trump – who had not previously commented publicly about AUKUS – gave Mr Albanese his presidential seal of approval to the agreement for Australia to acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK.
While navy Secretary John Phelan suggested there were some “ambiguities” in the agreement that needed to be resolved, Mr Trump put it back on him: “You’re going to get that taken care of right?”
The agreement was “full steam ahead”, said Mr Trump, even agreeing that the vessels would act as a deterrent against Beijing as China’s military continued to expand across the region.
Washington said earlier this year it was reviewing the deal for at least three Virginia-class nuclear attack subs signed under previous president Joe Biden, but Mr Trump promised Australia would get them.
“The submarines that we’re starting to build for Australia are really moving along,” Mr Trump told reporters as he sat alongside Albanese in the cabinet room of the White House.
“We’ve worked on this long and hard, and we’re starting that process right now. And it’s really moving along very rapidly, very well.”
Mr Albanese meanwhile managed to ride out an awkward confrontation between Mr Trump and Australia’s ambassador to Washington – former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Mr Rudd deleted a series of critical social media posts about Mr Trump following the Republican’s election victory last year.
“I don’t like you either. I don’t. And I probably never will,” Mr Trump said to Mr Rudd when a reporter pointed out that the ex-prime minister was in the room and asked the US President whether he minded the comments.
Australians have a mostly unfavourable view of the Trump administration, polling shows, though the country relies on the US to balance China’s expanding military clout in the Pacific region.
China loomed large over both of the key issues in the talks. Australia has touted itself as a key US ally against China’s territorial assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region, from Taiwan to the South China Sea.
On China, Australia announced plans for a strategic reserve of critical minerals to provide to “key partners” such as Washington to help relax Beijing’s chokehold.
Mr Trump this month accused China of pressuring trade partners with new rare export curbs and threatened 100-percent tariffs in response
– With AFP
Originally published as Anthony Albanese lands back in Australia a rock star after successful meeting with Trump
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