The Kabul Tribune (KT) — Reuters reported that Australia and Canada signed new agreements on critical minerals on Thursday, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a landmark address to the Australian Parliament.
Carney is currently on a multi-leg visit across the
Asia-Pacific region, which also includes stops in Japan and India. During his
visit to Australia, he became the first Canadian leader to address the
Australian Parliament since 2007.
“In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a
choice: compete for favor or combine for strength,” Carney told lawmakers
during his speech.
Introducing Carney in parliament, Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese said the visit reflected the growing closeness between the two
countries.
“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,” Albanese said.
Albanese later told a news conference that Australia would
join Canada’s Group of Seven critical minerals production alliance.
He added that the two countries agreed to deepen cooperation
in several areas, building on a joint declaration on critical minerals signed
last year.
The Canada-led alliance aims to diversify and secure global
production and supply of critical minerals. Canada and Australia together
produce about one-third of the world’s lithium and uranium and more than 40
percent of global iron ore.
Western countries have increasingly sought to diversify
supply chains away from China, which currently dominates much of the global
production and processing of critical minerals used in semiconductors and
defense technologies.
Canada’s Energy and Mining Minister Tim Hodgson told Reuters
earlier that forming a production alliance or a buyers’ club could be an
effective way to address the concentration of global critical mineral supplies.
Meanwhile, Australia has allocated about 1.2 billion
Australian dollars (around $850 million) to build a strategic stockpile of
critical minerals, beginning with antimony, gallium and rare earth elements.
