Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken with US President Donald Trump in a phone call overnight Thursday.

Albanese briefed the media about their “lengthy and substantial” chat covering the AUKUS pact which was “full steam ahead”, the Middle East war and a critical minerals agreement.

When asked by a journalist about the US tariffs imposed on Australia, Albanese said he asked for a full exemption.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Albanese said he had a “very warm and productive” discussion with Trump.

“President did ask me today — I told the President I would be talking about this this morning and he wanted to pass on his best wishes to the people of Australia who he feels a great warmth towards,” said Albanese.

“I was able to pass on my best wishes to the United States on their 250th birthday as well as my personal best for the President’s 80th birthday.”

Albanese said he and Trump exchanged views “on a number of global and regional issues, including the conflict in the Middle East and recent developments in the Pacific”.

“We discussed the strength of our alliance which is 75 years old this year and continues to go from strength to strength.”

“We reviewed the significant progress that has been made under AUKUS which remains full-steam ahead.

“We agreed it was a project that is and will continue to deliver benefits for the United States, for Australia, and for the United Kingdom.

“We discussed the progress on pillar two of AUKUS where we have agreed our first significant project focused on joint development of cutting-edge payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles.”

“We were able to review progress of our agreement on critical minerals which is making real progress under which we are delivering more than $3.5 billion worth of critical minerals projects.”

More to come.