After waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days, as his US counterpart talks up cooperation on rare earths and other issues.
Albanese followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea.
Eight leaders including the prime ministers of New Zealand, Canada, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam attended the dinner in the tourist town, held in honour of Trump ahead of his highly anticipated meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Addressing the gathered officials, Trump reserved some of his strongest praise for the Australian prime minister, who was sitting next to him.
“We had a great meeting a week ago,” the US president said, referring to their Washington meeting.
“You’ve done a fantastic job … we’re working together on rare earths, but we’re working on a lot of things together, and it’s all working out very well.”
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Albanese greeted his American counterpart warmly and shook his hand as the leaders gathered for their official photo.
The prime minister’s White House visit last week was widely praised as a success after the two leaders signed a multibillion-dollar deal to give the US greater access to Australia’s critical minerals reserves.
Speaking to reporters at the Apec summit, Albanese said he hoped trade tensions would ease between China and the US.
“We want to see a positive outcome,” the PM said on Thursday.
“The United States and China have an important role as the two major economic powers that exist in our region. These are important relationships for Australia.”
Albanese declined to support Trump’s declaration that tariffs were good for US alliances, saying Australia believed free and fair trade was good for the world.
“We believe that the more open that trade occurs, the better it is for the global economy, the better it is for Australia,” he said.
Trump and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, finalised details of their fraught trade deal on Wednesday.
“We made our deal, pretty much finalised it,” Trump said in opening remarks at the dinner with Lee and other regional leaders. He did not provide details about the deal and nor did the White House.
Amid US tensions with Canada over an anti-tariffs ad, Trump said he would not talk to the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, for a while, even though both were at the summit.
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“For those that are asking, we didn’t come to South Korea to see Canada!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Donald Trump and the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, seated opposite each other at the Apec summit dinner. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
Carney and Trump were, however, seated at the same table at the dinner. They sat on opposite sides and acknowledged each other as they sat down.
The Apec summit is the latest stop on Albanese’s diplomatic whirlwind of recent weeks, travelling to the US (twice), UK, UAE, Malaysia and now South Korea.
Asked whether he would attend the Cop30 leaders summit in Brazil in November, Albanese said Australia would be represented there and he would instead attend parliament for the second week of the sitting fortnight.
“I’m sometimes amused by the contradictory messages from Australian media saying I should do more international travel,” he said.
“But when I do, they say I should do less.”
Australia is bidding to host the 2026 Cop alongside Pacific nations, but Turkey has launched a rival bid for the summit.
If an impasse on hosting is not resolved by the end of this year’s Cop, the rights will revert to the German city of Bonn.
