Anthony Albanese is considering a snap visit to Europe next week to meet Donald Trump, days after their first meeting at the G7 in Canada was cancelled.
Nato leaders will gather at The Hague on 24-25 June, talks set to be dominated by the growing Middle East war.
Ahead of leaving the summit in Kananaskis on Tuesday local time, Albanese said he could join the talks next week, a move that is incumbent on a face-to-face meeting with the US president being locked in.
“Yes that is being considered,” Albanese said.
Trump and Albanese had been due to discuss Australia’s defence spending and the Aukus nuclear submarines agreement, as well as Washington’s punishing trade tariffs.
But Trump left the summit a day early to return to Washington to deal with the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, standing up a group of world leaders including Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum and European Union boss Ursula von der Leyen.
Albanese instead met the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, as well as the US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, and the director of the US National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett.
A spokesperson for Albanese said the US ambassador, Kevin Rudd, joined the meeting, which also included discussions on wider trade issues, critical minerals and rare earths.
Albanese said he was “mature” about Trump’s early departure and the cancelled talks, but the prospect of a Nato visit suggests the government is eager to lock in a meeting before long.
The prime minister held warm talks with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, while in the Rocky Mountains.
The defence minister, Richard Marles, had been due to represent Australia at the Nato summit. The White House confirmed Trump would attend in early June.
“I am considering it,” Albanese said. “I had discussions with a range of people over the last couple of days, obviously, including I met with the Nato secretary general yesterday. He’s well known to me, but I had discussions with others here as well.”
In one of the main summit sessions, Albanese told G7 leaders and other partner countries that a handful of nations should not be allowed to control global supply of critical minerals.
“Critical minerals are the new drivers of energy security,” Albanese said.
“Australia is blessed to have some of the largest critical minerals deposits on Earth.
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“But we are increasingly finding that critical minerals markets are concentrated and vulnerable to manipulation. Producers struggle to remain competitive, and supply chains are affected by export bans and controls.”
Australia signed on to the G7’s critical minerals action plan, which Albanese said would “support secure, diversified critical minerals supply chains”.
Albanese also accepted the European Union’s offer of high-level negotiations on a new defence and security pact in a meeting with Von der Leyen and the European Council president, António Costa.
Marles and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, have been charged with leading work on the agreement. The EU already has similar deals in place with countries including Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom.
It is not legally binding and would not include troop deployment, but is designed to strengthen cooperation on global security challenges.
It comes amid renewed talks on a possible Australia-EU free trade agreement. The deal could be used in areas including foreign interference, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, defence industries and critical technologies.
Negotiations on the new agreement were first proposed at the inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV in Rome last month.
Australia was initially cool on the idea, but it has picked up serious momentum at the G7 summit in Canada.
Albanese is due to return to Australia on Thursday morning.
