Trump meets with Albanese as Australia hopes critical minerals help AUKUS submarine deal

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an agreement at the White House on Monday on rare-earth minerals, which could serve as a bargaining chip as the United States fights a trade war with China

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed an agreement at the White House on Monday on rare-earth minerals, which could serve as a bargaining chip as the United States fights a trade war with China.

They signed the agreement at the top of the meeting, which Trump told the media had "been negotiated over a period of four or five months."

"We got it done just in time for the visit," Trump told reporters. "And we work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals and lots of other things, and we’ve had a very good relationship. We’ve been working on that for quite a while."

Albanese said Australia has a $8.5 billion pipeline "ready to go" for the deal.

A White House official said that under the deal, the U.S. and Australian governments plan to invest more than $3 billion together in critical mineral projects in the next six months, with recoverable resources estimated to be worth over $50 billion.