Prime Minister Albanese: “Really good discussion” with President Joe Biden.
Australia seeks to finalize a critical minerals agreement with the United States this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday in Philadelphia following a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden. According to Albanese, the two politicians discussed geopolitical issues ahead of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting and the Critical Minerals Compact between the two countries, which was first announced in May last year. Albanese is hopeful they can finalize the agreement “by the end of this year.” Under the so-called compact, Australia and the U.S. are set to deepen their cooperation on clean energy and critical minerals and seek to coordinate policies and investments better.
Albanese highlighted Australia’s mineral wealth, underlining the possibility of supplying allied nations with coveted resources. Australia supplies around half of the world’s lithium and has vast amounts of other critical minerals like rare earths. So far, China has been dominating the sector, accounting for the majority of mining and refining of multiple critical minerals. Western nations have begun to launch efforts to diversify their supply chains in light of geopolitical tensions in recent years. For example, the European Union and the United Arab Emirates have also signed raw material agreements with Australia. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate passed the Critical Mineral Task Force Act last week to strengthen domestic supply chains (we reported).
Photo: iStock/Oleksii Liskonih
