BY ANDREW BROWN & ZAC DE SILVA for AAP
WASHINGTON DC, USA — Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump will be “best mates” when they next cross paths, a former ambassador to the US predicts as their White House meeting is broadly declared a success.
The prime minister and president locked in a multibillion-dollar critical minerals deal and firmed up the future of the AUKUS military pact during a warm meeting in front of the cameras in the White House cabinet room early on Tuesday (AEDT).
Mr Trump played up his friendship with Mr Albanese, saying the US believed there had “never been anyone better” than Australia.
The main awkward moment came when Mr Trump was asked about the ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd, who once called the president a “traitor to the West”.
Mr Trump appeared not to know who Dr Rudd was, but when the former Labor prime minister was pointed out he responded, “I don’t like you either and I probably never will”, to laughter from the Australian delegation.
Once the cameras were switched off, the ambassador apologised to Mr Trump, who said “all is forgiven”, according to multiple Australian media outlets citing sources in the room.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the interaction made Dr Rudd’s position as ambassador no longer tenable.
“The prime minister now has to back him or sack him,” she told reporters in Sydney.
But former ambassador to the US Dennis Richardson, who was appointed to the post in 2005 under the then-coalition government, said the meeting was a success for Australia and criticism of the ex-prime minister was overblown.
“You cannot have the outcomes that you’ve seen on this visit without the Australian ambassador in Washington having played a significant part,” he said.
Another formal meeting is unlikely when the two leaders next converge at the APEC and ASEAN summits in the coming weeks, Mr Richardson said.
“However, they’ll certainly have an exchange and they’ll be best mates,” he said.
As part of the White House meeting, the leaders signed a historic agreement on rare earth and critical minerals processing, which is being seen as an attempt by the US to counter China’s hold on the market.
“This is an $US8.5 billion ($A13 billion) pipeline that we have ready to go,” Mr Albanese said while signing the deal, which the US president noted had been negotiated over several months.
“Australia has a view similar to putting America first,” the prime minister said.
The agreement involves the processing of minerals and includes joint investments between the US and Australia and other shared projects involving Japan.
Australia and the US will together invest about $US3 billion ($A4.6 billion) in critical mineral projects within six months, the White House said, and America would back a gallium refinery in Western Australia.
There was hope the agreement could be used as leverage for a tariff reduction on Australian goods entering the US, but the prime minister did not secure an exemption to the base rate of 10 per cent and higher levies on steel and aluminium.
He did receive assurances on the future of the AUKUS pact following uncertainty stemming from a US review of the trilateral agreement with Australia and the UK.
When asked about the security agreement’s centrepiece nuclear-submarine deal, Mr Trump replied: “They’re getting them”.
Under the agreement, the US would sell Virginia-class nuclear submarines to Australia from the early 2030s.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the president’s comments were “a really important affirmation” of US commitment to the military pact.
“This is a program which is very much in the interests of the United States as it is in the interests of Australia,” he told reporters at South Australia’s Osborne naval shipyard.
