Australia and Canada said on Thursday they had signed new agreements on critical minerals as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made a landmark address to the Australian parliament, a sign of the developing bond between the "middle powers".
Carney is on a multi-leg trip across the Asia-Pacific region also taking in Japan and India. His stop in Australia included the first address to Australia's parliament by a Canadian leader since 2007.
"In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a choice: compete for favour or combine for strength," he told lawmakers.
Introducing Carney in parliament, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his address represented the closeness of the ties between the two nations.
"Australia and Canada are middle powers in a world that is changing. We cannot change it back, but we can back ourselves, back our citizens, and back each other," he said.
Albanese told a press conference that Australia would join Canada's G7 critical minerals production alliance.
"We have agreed to deepen our relationship across several areas, building on our joint declaration of intent on critical minerals that we signed last year," he told a press conference.
The G7 alliance is a Canada-led initiative to diversify and secure global critical minerals production and supply.
Canada and Australia together produce about a third of global lithium and uranium, as well as more than 40% of global iron ore.
Western nations have been attempting to diversify their supply chains away from China, which still controls the majority of production and processing of critical minerals, essential for semiconductors and defence applications.
Canada believes that the best way to address the issue of concentrated supply of critical minerals is through a production alliance or a buyers' club rather than just a price floor, Energy and Mining Minister Tim Hodgson told Reuters on Tuesday.
Australia has already allocated A$1.2 billion ($850 million) to build a critical minerals stockpile, beginning with antimony, gallium and rare earths.
That will now be more closely aligned with Canada's defence stockpiling regime that has a similar aim, Albanese said.
"There's a lot Canada and Australia can do together on critical minerals as producer nations," Australian Resources Minister Madeleine King told Reuters ahead of Carney's visit.
Australia and Canada will also deepen cooperation in areas including defence and maritime security, trade and artificial intelligence, the two leaders said.
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Iran has rejected a U.S. proposal to end the war, insisting any ceasefire will occur only on its own terms and timeline, according to a senior political-security official speaking to state-run Press TV on Wednesday.
An opposition politician in Georgia has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for defacing an election banner, prompting strong reactions at home and abroad.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said it is unfair for people around the world to shoulder the cost of U.S.–Israeli attacks on Iran, warning that Spanish firms have already lost €100 billion ($116 billion) in less than a month as a result of the conflict.
Uzbekistan has launched the next phase of its first nuclear power plant (NPP) project, with initial concrete works now under way at the construction site in the Farish district of the Jizzakh region, according to the national atomic energy agency, Uzatom.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was talking to the right people in Iran to make a deal on Tuesday (24 March), as Pakistan's Prime Minister offered to host peace talks between the two countries to bring about an end to the conflict.
Both the United States and Iran are giving conflicting messages about trying to end the conflict in the Middle East as the rest of the world battle with the consequences of the war. Welcome to AnewZ's coverage of the tensions in the Middle East.
Afghan authorities say Pakistani jets entered northern Afghanistan, while Pakistan insists its actions target terrorism, highlighting continued strain after a temporary Eid ceasefire ended.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen resigned on Wednesday after her coalition suffered a heavy election defeat, triggering negotiations over who will form the next government.
Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel, the Israeli military said, after U.S. President Donald Trump postponed a threat to bomb the Islamic Republic's power grid because of what he described as productive talks with Iranian officials.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said it is unfair for people around the world to shoulder the cost of U.S.–Israeli attacks on Iran, warning that Spanish firms have already lost €100 billion ($116 billion) in less than a month as a result of the conflict.
Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN), said on Wednesday that the U.S. had “clearly made a mistake” in launching strikes on Iran, arguing Washington misjudged the resilience of the Iranian regime.
Russia’s Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, major export terminals, suspended loadings of crude oil and refined products on Wednesday after large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks triggered a blaze, sources told Reuters.
The UK government is to trial social media bans, curfews and app time limits in the homes of 300 teenagers, as part of a wider consultation on restricting under-16s’ access to platforms and improving online safety.
Hungary will gradually halt gas supplies to Ukraine until oil deliveries resume via the Druzhba pipeline, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Wednesday.
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