And just like that, it was done.

Almost a year on from the re-election of Donald Trump and six months on from the re-election of Anthony Albanese, the US president and the Australian prime minister have finally had their first formal meeting in the White House.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese got US President Donald Trump onside.Credit: Bloomberg

And while this meeting wasn’t exactly what ambassador Kevin Rudd might have hoped for, with the president inadvertently admitting he didn’t even know what the former prime minister looked like, when the smoke cleared from that incident, the current PM and president had cemented a relationship.

The president and the prime minister inked a deal on critical minerals to unlock a $13 billion pipeline of investment in Australia.

The deal is designed to circumvent China’s vice-like grip on much of the world’s critical resources and their processing, which are needed to build everything from the lithium-ion batteries used in cars and phones through to........

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