While it was a meeting of Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump to thrash out an agreement on critical minerals of which rare earth mineral (which are critically important to smart phones and many tech products) is the prominent one, it turned into a lovefest between the two leaders. Given what the media has been alluding to, this has to be seen as a real surprise.

Before getting to the agreement, let’s look at the mutually supportive observations made by the two leaders, which are not only a positive for our US relationship but might have negative implications on our friendship and trade with our number one trade partner, China. Here was what said:

1. Trump told him he’s doing a fantastic job.

2. He called the PM popular and highly respected.

3. He said these two lines: “It’s great working with Anthony.” And “They really have a great Prime Minister.”

5. The PM invited the US President to come to Australia, which the latter implied he was seriously considering

6. Albo loved the last one, responding with: “I’ll use it in my ads in 2028!” (This might be news Jim Chalmers and Tony Burke might be unhappy to hear, who many think will be fighting to replace the PM when his political use-by date has arrived.

Interestingly, it wasn’t all ‘lovey-dovey’ as the President singled out Kevin Rudd as our Ambassador at the meeting. He claimed he didn’t know him but has heard he’d “said bad” about him. Mr Rudd said those comments were before he was made Ambassador and wanted to withdraw those observations. Despite that, Trump then signalled out Rudd and said: “I don’t like you either, and I probably never will.”

To the critical minerals deal and while the detail is still short on the ground, this appears to be the guts of it.

1. The deal will see billions of dollars contributed by both countries to projects in the next six months.

2. It’s seen an $8.5 billion rare earths and critical minerals deal.

3. The White House said that the Export-Import Bank of the United States will issue seven letters of interest for more than $2.2 billion in financing, unlocking up to $5 billion in total investment for the joint projects.

4. The US will invest in building a gallium refinery in Western Australia with a capacity of 100 metric tons a year.

5. ABC.net.au reported the PM said that there are three parts to the deal: “One that are joint activities between Australia and the United States, such as Alcoa, secondly is projects that will be US investment, that the US will undertake in Australia, including processing, and [third] is ones that Australia will undertake.”

6. There will also be joint projects between Australia, the USA and Japan.

7. The goal of the agreement is to ensure a steady supply of the critical minerals at a time when China is trying to tighten control over global supply.

The Prime Minister linked the agreement to his Future Made in Australia plan, which he said “is about not just digging things up, it’s about how do we make sure that we have across the supply chains, with our friends, that they are able to benefit from those opportunities.”

China’s reaction to this agreement is a work in progress and is bound to create future headlines that our exporters will be hoping won’t infer trade bans and tariffs.

On China, President Trump said he will meet Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month and will visit China next year. CNBC reported that he added: “We had Presidents that allowed China and other countries get away with murder. We’re not going to allow that, but we’re going to have a fair deal. I want to be good to China. I love my relationship with President Xi. We have a great relationship.”

On AUKUS and the US supplying us submarines that will be stationed in WA, the President (who has never been seen as a great fan of the deal struck by a previous administration) said to a reporter: “There shouldn’t be any more clarifications because we’re just going full steam ahead building.”

He added another sentence the PM might use in his next election campaign: “We have it all set, with Anthony we've worked on this long and hard and we're starting that process right now and I think it's really moving along really rapidly.”

Whatever way you look at this “when Albo met Trump” affair (with apologies to Meg Ryan), it looks like Donald effectively said: “I’ll have what he’s having!”