Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to consider exempting Australia from Washington's 12.5% tariff after what he described as a productive 40-minute conversation that also covered AUKUS, critical minerals and artificial intelligence. Albanese said he asked for a full exemption or, failing that, a return to the previous 10% rate, while arguing the United States had run a $442 billion trade surplus with Australia over the past 20 years and challenging Washington's forced-labor rationale as lacking a credible evidentiary basis. In earlier remarks on the same exchange, Albanese said AUKUS remained "full steam ahead" and said he also discussed Iran and Australia's defence ties with Papua New Guinea and Fiji.