Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently shared a dinner table with US President Donald Trump in South Korea, ahead of Trump’s crucial meeting with China’s leader.

This gathering took place in the city of Gyeongju and was hosted by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung. It featured seven other leaders from APEC nations, but Trump clearly stood out as the evening’s central figure.

During the dinner, Albanese was seated next to Trump, who expressed admiration for the Australian leader. Referring to their prior meeting in Washington just a week earlier, Trump stated, “We had a great meeting a week ago.”

Trump went on to commend Albanese for his impressive leadership, noting their collaborative efforts on rare earths and other initiatives. “You’ve done a fantastic job and we’re working together on rare earths, but we’re working on a lot of things together, and it’s all working out very well,” Trump remarked.

“You’ve done a fantastic job and we’re working together on rare earths, but we’re working on a lot of things together, and it’s all working out very well.”

In a move aimed at breaking China’s chokehold on critical minerals, Albanese and Trump last week signed a $13 billion agreement in the US capital.

The US and other countries, including Australia, are investing heavily in rare earths to break China’s domination but it may take years for that to pay off.

The dinner was held ahead of Trump’s eagerly anticipated meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping today, the first face-to-face encounter in his second term.

Trump told the other leaders he was dining with he was confident a deal could be reached with Xi.

“I think we’re going to have something that’s going to be very, very satisfactory to China and to us,” he said yesterday.

The meeting follows months of volatile moves in a trade war between China and the US that have rattled the global economy.

Trump was infuriated earlier this month after Beijing imposed new export controls on rare earths used in technology and threatened to hike retaliatory tariffs to sky-high levels.