The United States and Australia's new critical minerals pact and Trump's endorsement of AUKUS reflect a mutual desire to tighten defense and supply chain integration as a way to reduce strategic reliance on China, though these political commitments are unlikely to yield tangible results before the end of the decade due to industrial bottlenecks. On Oct. 20, U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met at the White House for a bilateral summit that delivered two principal outcomes: a critical minerals deal (dubbed the U.S.-Australia Framework for Securing Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths) and a public reaffirmation of U.S. commitment to the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership. The critical minerals framework commits both governments to jointly mobilize financing through their respective export-credit and development agencies to support priority mining, refining and processing projects. The U.S. Export-Import Bank, the U.S. International Development...
