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19-06-2025
SYDNEY: Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday the country would commence negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the European Union and was also hopeful of a “symbolically important” trade deal.
Albanese met with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the G7 summit where they discussed the EU proposal for a defence partnership.
“We see this as an important framework for our current and future cooperation in areas like defence industry, cyber and counter-terrorism,” Albanese told a news conference in Kananaskis where he is attending the G7 summit.
Ministers from both sides will progress the talks in the coming weeks, Albanese said, adding he expected discussions to be concluded “pretty quickly”.
The EU struck defence partnerships with Japan and South Korea in November.
EU officials have previously said these are not military alliances.
Albanese said he was hopeful that recently revived negotiations for a separate free trade agreement with the European Union would result in a deal.
“At this time it’s also symbolically important to see an outcome of an expansion of trade, because that is something that is going through difficult times at the moment,” he told reporters.
Albanese said “half” of the outstanding issues had been resolved, although Australia wanted to see greater access for its sheep and beef exports to Europe.
Albanese met with senior US trade officials, after the Australian leader’s scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump was cancelled when Trump left the G7 a day early.
Australia has highlighted its abundance of critical minerals in negotiations with the United States as it seeks to have US tariffs lifted.
Meanwhile, Australia and the European Union have revived talks for a sweeping free trade agreement, after Australia’s trade minister Don Farrell met with the European Commissioner for Trade Maros Sefcovic in Paris on Wednesday.
The meeting on the sidelines of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting comes amid a Wednesday deadline by the United States for countries to send their best offer in trade negotiations.
Farrell met the US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Paris on Tuesday, after Australia criticized US President Donald Trump’s move to double steel tariffs to 50% from 25% and called for the removal of a 10% tariff on all its exports.
“Both Australia and the EU recognize that now is the time to strengthen our economic partnership and we’re working through the remaining issues to try and finalize the deal,” Farrell told media in a statement.
A pact with the region was “about building economic resilience in a rapidly changing global environment,” said Farrell.
For his part, Sefcovic told journalists in Paris “we believe we can achieve substantial progress this year” in the free-trade talks, which have been on ice since 2023.
Agriculture topped a list of outstanding issues for an EU deal that officials will work on, although Australian officials could not say when the pact would be agreed.
Australia has previously offered to put the removal of its luxury car tax on the table but wants greater access for lamb and beef exports to Europe.
However, some big meat-producing EU member countries like France have reservations about opening the bloc’s markets to potential major competitors like Australia. Such concerns are also holding up talks with South American countries. (Int’l News Desk)
