ISABELLA HIGGINS: President Donald Trump has already announced a plan to stockpile rare elements and Australia signed a critical minerals partnership with the US last year. Australia's Resources Minister Madeleine King is in Washington attending these talks. Minister, thanks for joining us on AM, stepping aside from some of those meetings you’re in today. Can you give us a sense, what is the view in Washington on Australia’s role in the critical minerals global trade?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: It is my fourth visit to Washington DC as the Resources Minister of Australia. And that just demonstrates how important our resources industry is in that global supply chain and also to the interests of the United States. I am attending over the last day or also at large ministerial State Department meeting. It's called the Critical Minerals Ministerial hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. So, that's bringing together 55 ministerial-level representatives from different countries to talk about how we increase the security of the supply chains of critical minerals and rare earths right around the world. So, Australia has an important role to play in that as we have not only the gift of our geology which holds such vast amounts of these critical minerals, but also the expertise and know-how of our great resources industry. So, where Australia is and will continue to play a globally leading role on developing these critical mineral supply chains.

ISABELLA HIGGINS: As you say, Minister, Australia is blessed to have these raw materials. But US Vice-President JD Vance, who has helped set up these meetings, has made it clear that he wants a new trading bloc that is ultimately going to create an American dominance on the critical minerals market. Is Australia comfortable with that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the meetings are actually hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Vice-President did speak at the event earlier today and that was an important contribution to explaining to those present and anyone listening in the difficulties with the market as it stands. So, what America is trying to create is an alternative supply chain and an alternative market in the face of a market in critical minerals that has failed because of the market dominance of one country. So, you know, there'll be continuing discussions. Obviously there's a lot of work to be done on how we do collaborate and work together to develop this industry. But really importantly, we do need to develop this alternative means of getting access to critical minerals and rare earths because of trade restrictions that have been in place and because these are the things we need for many everyday items around us, but equally for important defence and national security technology.

ISABELLA HIGGINS: You mentioned the market dominance of one country. That country is China. And the US is blatantly trying to block China out of global production with this new alliance. How does Australia balance our own important relationship with China, who right now we export most of our raw critical minerals to?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I consistently said that Australia should compete on critical minerals on the basis of geology, but also the expertise and experience of our resources sector. We should have done it 20 or 30 years ago. We haven't. And now is the next best time to start. And you know, I have often acknowledged China's efforts in this and they did invest in this industry 30 odd years ago when western democracy sort of outsourced mining. That didn't happen in Australia but equally we didn't pursue this part of the industry. Well, now we are going to. And we will turn to others for the investment we need. And our resources sector has always needed international investment and there's an economic imperative to this. We learned through the pandemic that it can be dangerous to rely on one supplier for any one thing. And that's what's happening and has happened indeed, with critical minerals and rare earths. There is one supplier and when that happens, everyone is vulnerable to that supplier choosing to block provision of those refined products. And that's what's happened and did happen last year. So, there is a competitive imperative to this, an economic imperative and I think most of the world would understand why Australia would want to pursue an industry based on its natural advantage or its geology.

ISABELLA HIGGINS: Resources Minister Madeleine King, thanks very much for joining us this morning.