President Donald Trump has praised the close relationship between the United States and Australia while being questioned about the AUKUS trilateral partnership.
The leader of the free world met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House on Thursday (local time) to discuss a number of topics including the Russia-Ukraine war, as well as being invited by King Charles for an official state visit.
The pair were in good spirits, sitting down with their delegates at the Oval Office, as they spoke positively about the US-UK relationship before taking questions from media.
A journalist asked if the two leaders will privately speak about AUKUS, the partnership between Australia, the UK, and the US that would see Canberra provided with nuclear-powered submarines amid the strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region.
“What does that mean?” President Trump asked.
The reporter clarified it was the security partnership between the three nations.
“We’ll be discussing that. We’ve had another great relationship and you have to with Australia. We’ve had a very good relationship with Australia,” President Trump said.
The remarks signal a positive sign for the Albanese government as the leader of the free world considers if Australia will be exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke on the phone with President Trump who said earlier this month he would give “great consideration” to an exemption to Australia.
The Labor leader said he outlined why Australia should be free from the 25 per cent tariffs and the pair “agreed on wording to say publicly, which is the US President agreed that an exemption was under consideration in the interest of both our countries”.
While it is a positive sign, White House officials earlier this month also publicly stated Australia was a big player and “killing our aluminium market”.
The tariffs kick in on March 12.
But President Trump appearing to not know what AUKUS was initially about has also sparked political commentary on the future of the partnership.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Friday dismissed any concern about AUKUS, created by the former Coalition government under former PM Scott Morrison in 2021.
“Not everyone you know gets the acronyms, and all the rest of it, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the President strongly supports the alliance between our three countries and strongly supports AUKUS,” he said on Nine’s Today show.
“He stated that previously and the submarine deal, which we negotiated when we were in government, when I was Defence Minister, will underpin the national security of our country for the next century. And it’s an important relationship.”
Mr Dutton then claimed Mr Albanese was “trashing our international relationship at the moment and I think Australia is going backwards under this government”.
Shadow foreign affairs minister David Coleman also echoed Mr Dutton’s remarks.
“I think that was a brief moment in the White House. I wouldn’t be reading too much into that. AUKUS is incredibly important for our nation,” he said on Sky News.
