President Trump signed a key "rare earth mineral" agreement with Australian Prime Minister Albanese after months of negotiations, aimed at strengthening the US supply chain security and weakening China's dominant position in the global rare earth market. Trump said, "In about a year, we will have so many critical minerals and rare earths that we won't know what to do with them," but the details of the agreement have not been released. The New York Times pointed out that this move provides Australia with a major opportunity to establish itself as a reliable mineral supplier and deepen its strategic cooperation with the United States. Rare earth supplies have been one of the key issues in the Trump administration's negotiations with China, along with fentanyl and soybean exports, which are core trade demands.
At the same time, after months of external concerns about the US possibly withdrawing from the AUKUS agreement, Trump reiterated during his meeting with Albanese at the White House that the US would "move forward at full speed" on this nuclear-powered submarine cooperation agreement, ending Canberra and London's anxiety about the prospects of the agreement. Previously, the Pentagon had announced an review of the plan, triggering speculation that the Trump administration might abandon this trilateral cooperation aimed at expanding nuclear submarine production and jointly developing technologies to counter China. Trump said, "They are building extremely complex and expensive submarine facilities," emphasizing that the plan would still proceed as planned. However, when asked about potential interactions with China during his trip to South Korea for APEC, Trump said China "has always been very respectful of us," and added, "I think our relationship with China will be good." While sending signals of security cooperation to ally Australia, he also showed cautious optimism regarding relations with China, indicating that while reinforcing regional defense, he still aims to maintain communication channels between the US and China.
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Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846564623526026/
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