The head of the department of defence, Greg Moriarty, will succeed Kevin Rudd as Australia's ambassador to the United States. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, announced Moriarty's appointment to the role on Sunday. A former chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull and former Australian envoy to Iran and Indonesia, he has led the defence department since 2017. He will take up the posting in Washington from April. Moriarty was Australia's inaugural counter-terrorism coordinator and previously worked in US Central Command in the Gulf during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He represented Australia in Papua New Guinea, and as a negotiator of the peace monitoring group for Bougainville.
United States President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed an agreement on rare earth and critical minerals as China tightens control over global supply. The two leaders signed the deal on Monday at the White House. list of 4 itemsend of list Trump said the agreement had been negotiated over four or five months. The two leaders will also discuss trade, submarines and military equipment, Trump said.
Trump and Albanese are likely to discuss critical minerals, tariffs, AUKUS and defence cooperation in their meeting on Monday. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived in the United States for a long-awaited meeting with US President Donald Trump, with the two leaders expected to discuss defence and trade ties amid the Washington-Beijing trade war. In the wake of China tightening restrictions on its rare earths, the flow of Australian critical minerals into the US would be one of the major talking points
