Singapore: China has denounced Australia’s involvement in “camp confrontation” after US President Trump declared the AUKUS submarine deal was moving ahead at full steam , but has remained muted in its public response to Prime Minister Albanese’s rare earths deal with the US.

In his first bilateral meeting with Trump this week, Albanese cinched a $13 billion critical minerals mining and processing deal designed to mitigate China’s stranglehold on the rare earths supply chain. Australia has wielded the deal as a key bargaining tool in ongoing trade negotiations with the US.

Beijing has so far steered clear of denouncing the rare earths deal cinched between Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump this week. Credit: AP

Trade tensions between the US and China have flared again after Beijing

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