Australia is one step closer to strengthening co-operation and security with the EU, but uncertainty remains on when a trade deal with the bloc will be signed off.

The cancellation of Donald Trump’s much-anticipated talk with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shifted the spotlight from Australia’s relationship with the US, to its alliance with the European Union.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday (AEST) revealed he would begin negotiations on a security and defence partnership with the EU.

The announcement followed a trilateral meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Canada.

The partnership would strengthen co-operation on global security challenges between Australia and the EU.

Officials from the EU and Australia are expected to conclude discussions “pretty quickly”, and Mr Albanese said it would be an important framework for co-operation in areas like defence and counterterrorism.

Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong had been working on a potential agreement for some time, with Mr Marles meeting the bloc’s High Representative for Security Policy Kaja Kallas at a recent dialogue in Singapore.

The EU already has similar partnerships with seven other countries, including Japan, South Korea and the UK.

On the other hand, Australia’s long-stalled trade agreement with the bloc is still some ways away, though talks have resumed.

“We have been getting closer and I think at this time it would send a very important signal about the importance of free and fair trade,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Calgary.

The EU was Australia’s third-largest trading partner in 2022/23, with two-way trade valued at $106 billion.

Negotiations over the proposed free trade agreement first began in 2018 but have been held up by several points of contention.

Australia has urged the EU to drop or reduce its tariffs on all agriculture exports, but trading bloc is concerned by Australian producers using terms like prosecco or feta for products that did not originate from specific regions in Europe.

The prime minister hopes to get face time with Donald Trump “soon” after playing down the US president’s decision to cancel a highly anticipated one-on-one.

Anthony Albanese’s plan to meet Mr Trump on the last day of the G7 Leaders’ summit in Canada’s Alberta province was upended when the president left early due to the escalating situation in the Middle East.

But the two may not have to wait long for their next opportunity.

Mr Albanese said he was considering attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit at The Hague, where the president is expected to appear at the end of June.

“We’ll meet soon and I’m sure that will occur,” he told reporters in Calgary on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEST).

“From time to time, meetings are rescheduled – that’s what happens.

“There’s important things happening and that’s understandable at the moment.

“I’m mature about these things.”

The prime minister was scheduled to meet with the leader of the free world on Tuesday afternoon, but 24 hours before their first face-to-face Mr Trump revealed he would leave the G7 summit early.

The event would have been Mr Albanese’s first in-person opportunity to try to negotiate a tariff exemption as Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products incur a 50 per cent levy.

Instead, the prime minister had two meetings with members of the president’s senior economic team.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Mr Albanese and Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

They discussed trade, tariffs, and Australia’s critical minerals and rare earth minerals, which could be used as a bargaining chip.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister was also expected to advocate for AUKUS in his meeting with Mr Trump.

There is some hope the US won’t try to mothball the deal after Mr Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the agreement following their bilateral meeting.

Many others in attendance at the summit had also lined up chats with Mr Trump.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was also hoping to have her first in-person talk with Mr Trump, but spoke to the president on the phone after her meeting was cancelled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had scheduled discussions with the US president on Tuesday.

The diplomatic show continued without its biggest star.

Mr Albanese’s talks with other world leaders went ahead, with the prime minister also holding conversations with Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the UK prime minister.

But the absent Republican and his controversial policies continued to cast a shadow over other discussions.

“We’re a trading nation and a theme that we had in all of those discussions was the support for free and fair trade, as well as the support for economic growth at a time which has been turbulent,” Mr Albanese said.

The prime minister also met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Mark Rutte in recent days.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government shouldn’t have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

Almost 2000 Australians want to be evacuated from Iran and Israel, as missile attacks in the Middle East countries intensify.

As speculation grows that the US is preparing to enter the conflict, more than 1000 Australians have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for help to leave Israel.

A further 870 Australians and family members want to leave Iran, after the conflict began on Friday as Israel tries to wipe out Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Labor government was examining its options, but evacuations were proving difficult due to airspace being closed.

“We’re obviously working very closely with those Australians via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,” he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“We’re monitoring developments in that very dangerous part of the world very closely.

“Our major focus is on the human cost of this escalating conflict, there are economic costs as well, we’re monitoring both of those things.”

The treasurer said Australia and other countries were examining President Donald Trump’s statement about the conflict.

Mr Trump met with his national security council on Wednesday morning, Australian time, after claiming he knew where Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.

The president has demanded Iran to unconditionally surrender.

“The US president has signalled that he wants a deal. I think there’s a broad, there is broad international support for a return to dialogue and diplomacy,” Dr Chalmers said.

“It’s a perilous place the Middle East right now, it’s a perilous time for the global economy.”

The situation in the Middle East has caused uncertainty for the Iranian community in Australia watching the destruction of their country.

Atefeh, who fled Iran and sought asylum in Australia more than a decade ago, has been worried sick about her family and friends left in capital Tehran.

Her niece has sent photos of rising smoke plumes, from her viewpoint out a window of their family home.

“We’re the only ones here, my husband and two kids, and we can’t do anything for them,” 40-year-old Atefeh, whose surname has been withheld out of concern for her family’s safety, told AAP.

“It’s so stressful, we don’t know what’s going to happen them.

“It doesn’t matter where you live, downtown or elsewhere, government facilities are everywhere and they’re being attacked.”

One of her relatives survived an Israeli attack on a government building he worked in due to being on annual leave, she said.

Another relative is in the thick of turmoil, working as a firefighter on the front line.

She and her husband are agonisingly close to receiving their Australian citizenship after spending years in immigration detention centres, followed by bridging visas and then permanent protection visas.

For her husband, a member of Afghanistan’s Hazara minority long discriminated against because of their ethnicity and religion, watching the decimation of infrastructure under the weight of Israeli bombs is doubly hard.

“When the Taliban came they went to Iran and now in Iran the situation is very difficult at the moment so they can’t feel safe.”

She said even though many Iranians are against the hardline government, it does not justify Israeli aggression.

“We don’t want innocent people killed, hospitals hit, children dying … this is a war between governments and ordinary people are in the middle.”

Iranian officials have reported 224 deaths, mostly civilians, while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed.

Israel launched its air war after saying it had concluded that Iran, which has long threatened the state, was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

US President Donald Trump says Japan is being “tough” in trade talks and the European Union had not yet offered what he considers a fair deal, as a team led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stayed at the G7 meeting in Canada to keep working on trade issues after Trump’s early departure.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that the EU would need to offer the United States “a good deal” or face higher tariffs.

Trump spoke after leaving the G7 summit early, in order to focus on the Middle East. 

He told reporters Bessent was staying on in Kananaskis, Alberta, to keep talking with counterparts on trade.

White House officials said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also remained in Canada and would be meeting with their counterparts. 

They said Trump met informally with all G7 members but had not seen the leaders of India, Australia or Mexico, who were also slated to meet him in Canada this week.

“We’re talking but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump said of the EU. 

“They’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they have to pay.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit that the objective was still to reach a deal before higher reciprocal tariffs go into effect on July 9 after a 90-day pause.

“It’s complex but we are advancing, that is good, and I push hard to pick up more speed, so we are mixed in the negotiations, and we will see what the end brings,” she said.

Trump also said there was a chance of a trade deal between the US and Japan.

“They’re tough, the Japanese are tough, but ultimately you have to understand we’re just going to send a letter saying ‘this is what you’re going to pay, otherwise you don’t have to do business with us’. But there’s a chance,” he said.

Trump also said pharmaceutical tariffs were coming very soon, repeating a threat he has made repeatedly to impose import taxes on medical goods in a bid to force drug makers to rebase production to the US.

“We’re going to be doing pharmaceuticals very soon. That’s going to bring all the companies back into America,” he said. 

“It’s going to bring most of them back into, at least partially back in.”

Matthew Goodman, a former senior US official and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said it was always a “stretch goal” for Trump to reach any deals at the G7 summit beyond finalising the terms of a limited deal with the United Kingdom.

The US-UK deal, announced by Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the sidelines of the G7 summit, reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on UK cars and eliminated tariffs on the UK aerospace sector but the issue of steel and aluminium remained unresolved.

Most other major US trading partners were still in talks to try to cement an agreement with Trump before the three-month hiatus on his sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs expires in about three weeks.

“I think July 9 is the real deadline. That’s when the 90-day pause ends, and I suspect that Trump and his team are trying to use that as maximum pressure to get countries to give more ground,” Goodman said.

Trump has signalled he could extend the deadline for countries that engaged in negotiations but repeated his threat to send letters to other countries that simply spell out the US tariffs they would be facing. 

A trade stalemate often overshadowed by US tariff issues is back in the spotlight after the prime minister’s talks with Donald Trump were upended.

Anthony Albanese’s plan to meet the US president on the last day of the G7 Leaders summit in Canada’s Alberta province was scuppered when Mr Trump announced he was leaving the event early.

But the hole left by the expected US tariffs discussions in Kananaskis has been filled by a push to resurrect a long-stalled free trade agreement with the European Union.

During talks with the German Chancellor, Mr Albanese said he was “very keen on getting it done quickly” and Friedrich Merz immediately offered to help.

“Is there anything I can do to speed it up a little bit?” he said ahead of their meeting on Tuesday local time.

Mr Albanese is also scheduled to talk with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa.

The EU was Australia’s third-largest trading partner in 2022/23, with two-way trade valued at $106 billion.

Negotiations over the proposed free trade agreement first began in 2018 but have been held up by several points of contention.

The trading bloc was concerned by Australian producers using terms like prosecco or feta for products that did not originate from specific regions in Europe.

Meanwhile, Australia has urged the EU to drop or reduce its tariffs on all agriculture exports.

Earlier in 2025, global uncertainty driven by Mr Trump and his tariffs had revived conversations, and the US president appears to have helped spark discussions once more.

Mr Albanese was scheduled to meet with the leader of the free world on Tuesday local time, however Mr Trump on Monday revealed he would leave the G7 summit early due to the escalation situation in the Middle East.

The conversation would have been Mr Albanese’s first in-person opportunity to try negotiate a tariff exemption as Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products face 50 per cent levies.

But a spokesperson for the prime minister said the decision was understandable given the situation between Iran and Israel.

Mr Albanese previously said he is “deeply concerned” by the situation and urged all parties to prioritise diplomacy and dialogue.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government should not have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister had also been expected to advocate for AUKUS in his meeting with Mr Trump.

There is some hope the US would not mothball the deal after Mr Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the agreement following their bilateral meeting.

Many others in attendance at the summit had also lined up chats with Mr Trump.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was also hoping to have her first face-to-face talk with Mr Trump, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had scheduled discussions with the US president on Tuesday.

But even without the biggest star of the summit, the diplomatic show must go on.

The prime minister’s talks with other world leaders have resumed, with Mr Albanese also holding conversations with Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba and the UK prime minister.

Mr Albanese will also catch up with French President Emmanuel Macron after a planned bilateral was cancelled due to a scheduling clash.

He has already met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Secretary General Mark Rutte.

The prime minister’s diplomatic show must go on, even after the departure of its biggest star.

Anthony Albanese’s highly-anticipated plans to meet Donald Trump during the last day of the G7 summit in Canada were scuppered when the US president announced he would leave the event early due to the escalating situation in the Middle East.

But the prime minister can’t afford to dwell on the loss as he prepares for talks with other world leaders.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Japanese President Shigeru Ishiba, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are scheduled to have formal meetings with Mr Albanese on Tuesday local time (Wednesday AEST).

Mr Albanese will also catch up with French President Emmanuel Macron in the margins of the summit after a planned bilateral was cancelled due to a scheduling clash.

Before news broke about Mr Trump’s unexpected exit, the prime minister said he looked forward to all of his talks.

“These meetings I find very useful,” he told reporters in Canada.

“I developed relationships with people by dealing with them in a straight way and that makes a big difference.”

However, the US president’s absence is expected to haunt the rest of the summit as global economies reckon with the impact of Mr Trump’s controversial tariffs.

Having already met with leaders including South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Mr Albanese wasn’t the only politician hoping to line up a chat with the leader of the free world.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was hoping to have her first face-to-face talk with Mr Trump, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also scheduled discussions with the US president.

A spokesperson for Mr Albanese said the decision was “understandable” given the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

The prime minister has said he is “deeply concerned” by the situation and urged all parties to prioritise diplomacy and dialogue.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley agreed Mr Trump’s decision to leave was reasonable, but said the government should not have “merely” relied on meeting with the president on the sidelines of the international summit.

After the Pentagon launched a review into Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK, the prime minister had been expected to advocate for AUKUS in his talks with Mr Trump, along with trying to negotiate a tariff exemption on goods exported to America.

Australia’s exports to the US continue to be hit with a baseline 10 per cent tariff and its steel and aluminium products face 50 per cent levies.

Caps designed to protect power users from excessive price hikes are not working as intended and need refining, the federal energy minister will concede in his first major speech since the election.

A convincing Labor win also has Chris Bowen hopeful Australia can triumph in its bid to co-host global climate talks and muscle out competitor Turkey, with a decision expected soon.

In a wide-ranging address to the Australian Energy Week conference in Melbourne, Mr Bowen will promise changes to the so-called Default Market Offer rules to force retailers to compete harder for customer dollars.

“The DMO was intended to act as a benchmark price to stop the worst forms of price gouging, while leaving the job of putting downward pressure on prices to competition between energy companies,” he will say on Wednesday.    

“However, I’ll be frank. I don’t think it’s working that way and reform is needed.” 

In several states, regulators enforce caps on what retailers can charge households and businesses to protect the hundreds of thousands of customers unable or uninterested in chasing a better deal.

Caps are reviewed annually to reflect the costs of generation and moving electricity around through poles and wires.

In NSW, South Australia, southeast Queensland, it’s the independent Australian Energy Regulator’s job, while in Victoria, the Essential Services Commission sets benchmark prices.

Changes to AER’s price cap mechanism have not yet been locked in, but could include clamping down on what retailers can claim back from customers on their bills.

Mr Bowen said it was hard to defend price caps when 80 per cent of billpayers could be getting a better deal.

“That’s why we have work underway to deliver a better regulated pricing mechanism which will put downward pressure on electricity bills and also ensure the energy market better utilises the huge uptake of rooftop solar and batteries,” he will say. 

Mr Bowen will declare Labor’s thumping election win as a vote of confidence in its energy and decarbonisation policies.

He says it puts Australia in a strong position to secure the rights to co-host the COP31 climate talks alongside Pacific nations.

An announcement is possible at the UN climate meetings underway in Bonn, Germany.

The bid has come under pressure following the federal government’s proposed decision to grant an extension on the North West Shelf gas plant’s operating life.

The project was singled out by Oil Change International in a report showing the United States, Canada, Norway, and Australia are responsible for nearly 70 per cent of projected new oil and gas from 2025 to 2035.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to lay out his key priorities for reform as he confronts “intensifying pressures” on the economy.

Fixing the nation’s stagnating productivity and turning around the budget’s outlook amid forecast deficits as far as the eye can see are topping his list.

As the economy records anaemic growth, Dr Chalmers on Wednesday will push for the nation to recognise “three blunt truths” standing in the way of higher living standards.

“Our budget is stronger, but not yet sustainable enough,” he will tell the National Press Club in Canberra.

“Our economy is growing, but not productive enough.

“It’s resilient, but not resilient enough – in the face of all this global economic volatility.”

Dr Chalmers is vowing to ensure Labor’s second term is consistent with those priorities.

And despite the progress made on getting inflation back within the Reserve Bank’s target band, the treasurer will say there’s still more to do.

Dr Chalmers will identify productivity as the government’s primary focus.

“Our economy is not dynamic or innovative enough,” he will say.

“Private investment has picked up, but not by enough to make our capital deep enough.

“Skills aren’t abundant enough or matched well enough to business needs.”

On the government’s productivity roundtable in August, the treasurer will say it won’t be a move to “retract or retrace” the steps taken in the first term, but an effort to renew and refresh.

Weak productivity growth is a major problem for advanced economies around the world.

“Too often it’s seen as a cold, almost soulless concept when it’s really the best way of making people better off over time, creating more opportunities, making our economy and our society more dynamic,” the treasurer will say.

In Australia, labour productivity has stagnated since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest GDP figures released earlier in June showed a fall in the year to March.

The 2022 election coincided with the largest quarterly fall in productivity growth in almost half a century, the treasurer will say.

Honda has succeeded in a launch and landing test of its prototype reusable rocket, the Japanese company says in a surprise announcement, marking a milestone towards its 2029 goal of achieving a suborbital spaceflight.

Honda R&D, the research arm of Japan’s second-biggest car maker, successfully landed its 6.3-metre experimental reusable launch vehicle after reaching an altitude of 271 metres at its test facility in northern Japan’s space town Taiki, according to the company.

While “no decisions have been made regarding commercialisation of these rocket technologies, Honda will continue making progress in the fundamental research with a technology development goal of realising technological capability to enable a suborbital launch by 2029,” it said in a statement.

Honda in 2021 said it was studying space technologies such as reusable rockets but it has not previously announced the details of the launch test. 

A suborbital launch may touch the verge of outer space but does not enter orbit.

Studying launch vehicles “has the potential to contribute more to people’s daily lives by launching satellites with its own rockets, that could lead to various services that are also compatible with other Honda business,” the company added.

Reusable launch vehicles have been the driver of emerging commercial space missions over the past decade, led by SpaceX’s Falcon 9, while its US rivals including Blue Origin and companies in China and Europe also have reusable rocket plans.

Tokyo-based startup Innovative Space Carrier last month said it will test-launch a prototype reusable rocket in the United States in December using a US-made engine.

Honda’s rival Toyota, the world’s biggest car maker by sales, earlier this year announced an investment by its research arm in Taiki-based rocket maker Interstellar Technologies to support mass production of launch vehicles.

Japan’s government has established a multibillion-dollar space venture fund to subsidise private rockets, satellites and other missions, targeting to double its space industry’s size to 8 trillion yen ($US55.20 billion) by the early 2030s.

US President Donald Trump has suggested he will likely extend a deadline for TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest the popular video sharing app.

Trump had signed an order in early April to keep TikTok running for another 75 days after a potential deal to sell the app to US owners was put on ice.

“Probably yeah, yeah,” he responded when asked by reporters on Air Force One whether the deadline would be extended again.

“Probably have to get China approval but I think we’ll get it. I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”

He indicated in an interview last month with NBC that he would be open to pushing back the deadline again.

If announced, it would be the third time Trump has extended the deadline.

The first one was through an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when the ban approved by Congress – and upheld by the US Supreme Court – took effect.

The second was in April when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with US ownership that fell apart after China backed out following Trump’s tariff announcement.

It is not clear how many times Trump can – or will – keep extending the ban as the US government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters.

He said in January that he has a “warm spot for TikTok”.