Defeating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is critical to restraining China in the Indo-Pacific, Finland’s defence minister has said, warning Europe and democratic partners, including Australia, face a fight of global consequences. Antti Häkkänen praised Donald Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on two Russian oil companies last week, calling the move a major sign of resolve by the US president against Vladimir Putin’s three-year long war. In an interview with Guardian Australia at the ministry of defence in Helsinki, Häkkänen said the West’s willingness to stay the course in opposing Russia’s…
Tag: Australia news
Australia ‘increasingly alone’ in countering China’s influence in Pacific, aid report shows
Australia is “increasingly alone” in countering Beijing’s influence in the Pacific and remains the largest foreign aid donor to the region as the US and other western partners cut funding, a new report shows. The 2025 Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, released late on Sunday, tracks official development finance (ODF) from 2008 to 2023. It finds ODF to the Pacific fell by 16% in 2023 to US$3.6bn, marking a second consecutive year of record decline in development support. Australia makes up 43% of official development finance in the region, four…
The world dropped the ball on critical minerals and China pounced. Is it too late for Australia and the US to close the gap?
Almost eight years to the day after the last Holden rolled off an Adelaide factory assembly line, Anthony Albanese announced a $13bn deal with Donald Trump to help champion a domestic rare-earth industry. Announcing the deal this week in Washington, the prime minister called it “a really significant day” that would take the relationship between the two countries “to the next level”. “We’re just getting started,” Albanese said. The US president claimed “in about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths, that you won’t…
Albanese’s critical minerals deal isn’t good economics – but in Trump and Xi’s new world, bargaining chips matter
Anthony Albanese has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Donald Trump to develop critical minerals projects in Australia that will never be commercially viable. When it’s laid out like that, it very much sounds like our prime minister fell victim to the president’s “art of the deal”. But we are in a new world where the national value of our critical minerals extends beyond economics, experts say. “This is a really significant deal, and I’m surprised how good it is,” says Hayley Channer, the director of the economic security program…
Australia and the US have signed a critical minerals deal to take on China’s monopoly. Here’s what you need to know
1. Albanese named two ‘priority projects’ in Australia The Australian prime minister specifically referred to two “priority projects”, one by Alcoa and the other by Arufura Rare Earths, that will get an injection of capital from the government as part of a broader list. The first is a proposed gallium plant in Western Australia, to be co-located at one of Alcoa’s alumina refineries. Gallium is a strategic mineral vital for modern technologies like military equipment – including in advanced electronic warfare systems such as missile guidance technology and radar. The…
What could a Trump deal on critical minerals mean for Australia – and could MAGA be a sticking point?
Australia’s rich deposits of minerals used for green energy technologies and military hardware are increasingly prized, especially because of rising anxiety about China’s stranglehold on the global supply chain. That anxiety escalated after Beijing imposed new restrictions on rare earths exports, prompting a furious rebuke from Donald Trump and a warning from his treasury secretary that western allies would need to “decouple” from China if it proved an unreliable supplier. The timing of the latest US-China trade conflict could be good for Anthony Albanese, who will arrive at next week’s…
China’s reported BHP iron ore ban has wide-ranging ramifications. Here’s what to know
China, via a state-run enterprise, has reportedly banned its steel manufacturers from buying iron ore from Australian mining giant BHP, amid a strategic bid by Beijing to reduce prices of the crucial steel-making commodity. While it is a commercial dispute, the fight has wide-ranging political ramifications, given the threat to Australia’s biggest export, valued at more than $100bn a year, and the possibility Canberra is drawn deeper into the fight. Even if the impasse is resolved promptly, it could prove to be a foreshock that warns of an economic earthquake…
PNG to provide troops to Australia under first new alliance since Anzus
Australia will elevate its relations with Papua New Guinea to the same level as the US and New Zealand, with a major defence treaty set to be signed as soon as next week. Delayed last month due to political complications within the PNG government, the new treaty won approval from prime minister James Marape’s cabinet ministers on Wednesday night. The Pukpuk mutual defence treaty will establish Australia’s first new alliance since the Anzus agreement was signed in 1951. Pukpuk will require both countries to come to the aid of the…
Vanuatu open to signing deal with Australia but will not be subject to ‘bullying’ from larger countries
Vanuatu remains open to signing a wide-ranging deal with Australia but must assert its sovereignty and will not be subject to pressure or “bullying” from larger countries, the country’s internal affairs minister, Andrew Napuat, said. Australia failed to seal the $500m Nakamal agreement in Port Vila last month amid concerns from Vanuatu that it would block other countries providing infrastructure funding. Weeks later, Vanuatu said it planned to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deepen policing cooperation with China. While Napuat said the two deals were separate, the stalled…
Albanese hopes China’s reported BHP iron ore ban ‘very much short-term’ as ASX dips
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will meet with the boss of BHP amid a shock report that the world’s largest mining company faces a Chinese blockade on its iron ore shipments. Beijing’s state iron ore buyer has told steelmakers to pause imports of BHP ore, amid hardball negotiations over the price of the crucial resource, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Chalmers said the reports were “concerning” but ultimately a matter for the company to work through. “I’ll have discussions with [BHP chief executive] Mike Henry about that in due course, when we…