President Donald Trump met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday, where the two leaders discussed trade and the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, in addition to signing an agreement on Australia’s rare-earth minerals — which could potentially serve as a bargaining chip in the United States’ trade war with China.

The meeting marked Albanese’s first visit to the White House since Trump returned to office. The Australian prime minister is aiming to strengthen his country’s relationship with Washington, leveraging Australia’s vast reserves of critical minerals to deepen strategic ties. The push comes amid global unease after China introduced sweeping export limits on rare earth materials — a move that has shaken economies worldwide. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that America and its allies, including Australia, are discussing a coordinated response to the restrictions.

Trump said at the White House as the two leaders met: “We are discussing critical minerals and rare earths and we’re going to be signing an agreement that’s been negotiated over a period of four or five months. We’ve been working on that for quite a while. In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them.” The two leaders signed the agreement at the top of the meeting, with a White House official later announcing that the United States and Australia will jointly invest more than $3 billion in critical mineral initiatives over the next six months. The projects are tied to recoverable resources estimated to exceed $50 billion in value.

Albanese described the new agreement as an $8.5 billion “pipeline that we have ready to go,” calling it a major step forward in the partnership on minerals and rare earths. He praised the deal as “taking it to the next level,” highlighting the growing economic and defense collaboration between the two nations.

According to both leaders, the pact will involve Australia taking on a greater role in processing rare earth elements. Albanese noted that the country has the “capacity” to increase those operations, signaling Australia’s readiness to expand its part in the supply chain. Under the plan, the United States and Australia will each contribute $1 billion over the next six months to launch initial projects. Additional ventures are expected in both nations, and one initiative will include Japan, Albanese said.

Later when asked whether the U.S. might consider lifting tariffs on Australia, Trump shifted to praising his overall trade strategy before noting, “I will say this, Australia, pays very low tariffs, very, very low tariffs. Australia pays among the lowest tariffs.”

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