Australian PM has talks with US leader covering security, trade and critical minerals

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held talks by phone with US President Donald Trump. Photo / Getty Images

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had discussed critical minerals as well as security and trade with United States President Donald Trump in a phone call, ahead of a potential meeting at the United Nations this month.

Albanese - who is yet to meet Trump in person - said the call was “warm and constructive”.

“We discussed our trade and economic relationship as well as areas for growth including critical minerals,” he said on social media.

“We also discussed shared US-Australia security interests,” he added.

The phone call late last night local time is the fourth time the leaders have spoken since Trump’s re-election last November.

And a possible opportunity for the pair to meet could be at this month’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

There was no indication the pair spoke about the Aukus pact, the 2021 deal which joins Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States in a multi-decade effort to balance China’s growing military might but which is under review by the Trump Administration.

Australia, a close US ally, has been slugged with a blanket 10% tariff on goods exported to the US as part of Trump’s sweeping global duties.

China has a stranglehold on the global supply of processed critical minerals and the issue has emerged as a key sticking point in trade talks between Beijing and Washington.

Albanese said in April the country would begin stockpiling critical minerals in a new strategic reserve.

Australia, a mining superpower, sits on bulging deposits of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, but sells most of this boon as raw ore to be processed in Chinese factories.

-Agence France-Presse