Well, thank you very much. It's great to have the Prime Minister of Australia. Fantastic place. A lot of friends over there and this is one of them right here. The Prime Minister is, as you know, Anthony Albanese and he's highly respected, done very well in his election. And I hear you're very popular today, right? I mean it varies from day to day but with all of us but he's done a fantastic job as the Prime Minister and we're here to talk about trade, submarines, lots of other military equipment. They're big orderers of our great military equipment. We have the best equipment anywhere in the world by far. And oh you got to watch that. Watch that. You're not allowed to break that. That mirror is 400 years old. A camera just hit the mirror. I just moved it up here special from the vaults and first thing that happens a camera hits it. Hard to believe, isn't it? Hard to believe, but these are the problems in life. So we're going to be here to talk about lots of different things and we might take a few questions before but 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 and it was sort of good timing that we got it done just in time for the visit. 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. 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. They'll be worth about $2. But in the meantime, we're working with Australia and other countries. They're working with us, too. But other countries also on that. But we're really working on anything having to do with military protection, military ships, vehicles, guns, ammunition, everything, the whole thing. We've been long-term, longtime allies. And I would say there's never been anybody better. We fought wars together. We never had any doubts. And it's a great honor to have you as my friend. It's a great honor to have you in the United States of America. Please, would you like to say something?
Well, thank you so much, Mr. President, for the invitation here to the White House and for showing us around the improved Oval Office and for what you're doing around here as well. And for the great honor as well of my delegation staying just across the road, we could have walked, but they didn't let us. We drove all of 20 meters from Blair House, but it's a great honor to be able to stay there. We are great friends and we're great allies and this is a relationship that's been forged in the battlefields of the world. We have stood side by side for freedom and democracy. And congratulations, I must say, Mr. President, on the work that you've done with the Middle East is an extraordinary achievement. And on defense, we've already had a discussion about taking it to the next level. Our defense and security partnership with AUKUS is so important for us and I thank you for the support that the administration are giving as well. You've had the Chief of the Navy here as well, which will play obviously a very critical role with the subs and increasing the security for the region and the world. And our economic relationship is so important. The US has a trade surplus with Australia as you know and we can continue to take every opportunity to improve the relationship even further and make it even stronger. And today's agreement on critical minerals and rare earths is just taking it to the next level. Seizing those opportunities which are before us to take our relationship to that next level and it's been fantastic the contact that we've had together, the friendship that we've developed. And Australians love America and I think Americans kind of like Australia too. And as we go forward I think that today will be seen as a really significant day in our relationship. So thank you very much Mr. President.
Well thank you very much Anthony. It's an honor to sign this and we'll do it now and then we'll take some questions. Some good ones I think.
Well, this is an $8.5 billion pipeline that we have ready to go.
That's right. It's all ready to go. Just getting started. And we're doing a real job on rare earth and many other things. Perhaps I could ask John to say a few words and then we'll exchange papers, but just how are we doing on your naval purchases and all of the submarines that we're working on with Australia. How's that going?
Thank you, Mr. President. Obviously Australia is a very important ally of ours in the Indo-Pacific and in every battle. They fought with us since World War I and have always been side by side. The facility that they're building, Fleet Base West, is critical and very important to our ability to project power in the Indo-Pacific and work with our allies. So, we're working very closely. I think what we're really trying to do is take the original AUKUS framework and improve it for all three parties and make it better and clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the prior agreement. So, it should be a win-win for everybody, sir. And the submarines that we're building for Australia are starting to really move along, right? The process is getting very exciting, isn't it?
That's good. Very good. Going to be great. Thank you very much. Maybe we'll hold this up. Okay.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. The AUKUS submarine pact, the AUKUS defense pact that the Prime Minister just mentioned. It is a critical issue for Australia. You haven't really spoken much about it publicly. It was a deal that was done under Joe Biden to sell submarines to Australia at a time when you're not really making enough for your own needs. So, can you tell us, have you gotten across the details of the deal? Do you support it? And will you honor it?
It was made a while ago and nobody did anything about it and it was going too slowly. We do actually have a lot of submarines. We have the best submarines in the world anywhere in the world and we're building a few more currently under construction. And now we're starting, we have it all set with Anthony. We've worked on this long and hard and we're starting that process right now and I think it's really moving along very rapidly, very well.
China's bad behavior has really only gotten worse since the AUKUS Partnership was formed. With that in mind, is the door open for Australia to get additional nuclear-powered submarines or other military capabilities not already in the deal?
I think China's been very respectful of us. They're paying tremendous amounts of money to us in the form of tariffs as you know. They're paying 55%. That's a lot of money. They never were paying anything over years and years and years. But they were like anybody else. A lot of countries took advantage of the US. They're not taking advantage anymore. No, China's paying 55% and a potential 155% come November 1st unless we make a deal. And I'm meeting with President Xi. We have a very good relationship. We're going to be meeting in South Korea in a couple of weeks and we'll see what we can do. We have a very good relationship with China, but you know, it's been probably a little bit like your relationship with China. They try and take advantage, but most countries do. I mean, I can say the European Union took advantage but not anymore. We worked out a very fair trade deal. Japan, we worked out a very fair deal. South Korea where I'll be meeting President Xi. We worked out a very fair deal and I expect we'll probably work out a very fair deal with President Xi of China. So, most of you will be with us. It's going to be very exciting and I think we're going to work out something that's good for both countries.
Are you at least interested in expediting the nuclear-powered subs to Australia?
Well, we are doing that. Yeah, we're doing that. We have them moving very very quickly.
Mr. President, I don't think you've ever been to Australia. Have you thought about coming to Australia and trying out some of the golf courses?
I would and I actually have been to Australia and I did play one of your great golf courses. Have great golf courses there. But I have been to Australia actually.
Oh, I would. In fact, I've been invited to go and I'll have to give it serious consideration. No, it's a real possibility.
Did the Prime Minister invite you today?
And perhaps we could time it, it must be said, with the President's Cup that Australia hosts as well. So when is the President's Cup? We'll organize a time suitable for you Mr. President.
Mr. President, the Prime Minister mentioned that there's a trade imbalance that's very heavily in America's favor. Why does America slap such heavy tariffs on a friend and ally?
Well, we don't really, well we do in some cases. We do in many cases because we've been treated unfairly. But actually the tariffs are very light. The one thing is you buy a lot of airplanes. So that helps because you buy a lot of the beautiful Boeings, the best of the Boeings. Boeing and by the way Boeing is really doing well. They have lots of orders and they're really doing a great job. They make a great plane. But Australia because of its location which is great but one of the things dictated by that location is you have to order a lot of airplanes. So I guess we have that advantage. They need a lot of airplanes in Australia and that gives us a little bit of an advantage.
Mr. President. Your Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in his Shangri-La speech in I think it was May warned about the potential likelihood or threat of President Xi ordering an invasion of Taiwan. 2027 is also the year that Fleet Base West is supposed to start rotating those US and UK submarines. Do you see that as a deterrent for China in the Indo-Pacific?
Yeah, I do. I think it is, but I don't think we're going to need it. I think we'll be just fine with China. China doesn't want to do that. First of all, the United States is the strongest military power in the world by far. It's not even close. Not even close. We have the best equipment. We have the best of everything. And nobody's going to mess with that. And I don't see that at all with President Xi. I think we're going to get along very well as it pertains to Taiwan and others. You know, that doesn't mean it's not the apple of his eye, because probably it is. But I don't see anything happening. We have a very good trade relationship. We're going to have a very good, I think when we leave South Korea, could be wrong, but I think we'll end up with a very strong trade deal. Both of us will be happy. I don't see that happening.
Given the trade surplus that the US enjoys with Australia, would you consider lifting the tariffs that you've imposed on Australia? And can you give us any details about the critical minerals deal?
Yeah. Well, the tariffs have been amazing because, you know, tariffs have been really a reason that I was able to settle almost all of the, you know, I've settled eight wars in eight months. Not bad. I have one more to go. It's Russia, Ukraine, and I think we'll get there, but it's turned out to be nasty because you have two leaders that truly hate each other. You know, you can't have it all, right? They hate each other beyond all else. And it makes it actually a little bit difficult but we try. Of the eight deals I would say because of tariffs four or five of them were settled. It's an amazing thing the power of tariffs in terms of our country but tariffs have always been used against us we never use them against anywhere else and now you have a president that for national security reasons and other reasons is using them and we've become a very rich nation again and a very secure nation again but we've also become a nation that used that power of tariffs and the power of trade to settle five of the eight wars that I said I settled eight. I'm very proud of that. Nobody else has settled one. I don't think there's been an American president that settled one. I think there probably hasn't been outside of the two countries involved or however many are at war. I don't think there's ever been an outside country that settled a war. Period. So, I settled eight in eight months. I'm proud of that. Now, in the meantime, I'm running a country that's right now we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. We were dead. A year and a half ago, we were a dead country. Now we're the hottest country in the world economically and otherwise. But I will say this, Australia pays very low tariffs. Very, very low tariffs. In fact, Australia pays among the lowest tariffs.
Mr. President, it's taken 9 months to get this meeting. Have you had any concerns with this administration with his stance on Palestine, climate change, or even things the ambassador said about you in the past, the Australian ambassador?
I don't know anything about him. I mean, if he said bad, then maybe he'll like to apologize. I really don't know. Did an ambassador say something bad about you? Don't tell me. I don't like you either. I don't. And I probably never will. Go ahead.
Mr. President. Your Secretary of the Navy said there will be some clarifications around some ambiguities on AUKUS. Can you tell us?
