Australia to begin talks on security, defence with EU

By Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) -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 its 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 U.S. 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 U.S. tariffs lifted.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal and Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Tom Hogue and Shri Navaratnam)