After waiting a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has now done so twice in 10 days.

The Australian prime minister followed last week’s trip to Washington by sitting next to the US president on Wednesday evening at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea.

The US president told reporters that the pair “had a great meeting a week ago”, according to the ABC , referring to their Washington meeting.

Trump continued: “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.”

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Trump and South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, finalised details of their fraught trade deal on Wednesday and the US president

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