US-Iran war updates: Trump hints at renewed peace talks, Albanese inks joint statement with Sultan of Brunei

Another of Australia’s key fuel suppliers has guaranteed it is not considering restricting exports despite the war in the Middle East causing havoc across supply chains, the prime minister says.

Anthony Albanese and the uber-wealthy sultan of Brunei Darussalam have discussed the need for more petrol, diesel, oil and fertiliser to be sent to Australia over coming months, during an official meeting in the kingdom’s gold-encrusted royal palace.

“What’s guaranteed is that they are not looking at imposing export restrictions on Australia,” Mr Albanese told reporters at the Australian High Commission in Bandar Seri Begawan.

“Not only did we speak about... existing supplies coming, we spoke about additional supplies as well,” he said.

The talks focused particularly on the impact the Middle East crisis having on fertiliser shipments, and ways to secure more urea from Brunei to support Australian farmers, Mr Albanese said.

“Of course, (fertiliser) goes back to Brunei as food,” he said.

Brunei supplies around 11 per cent of Australia’s fertiliser. In 2024, Australia supplied around three-quarters of the small sultanate’s meat imports.

Asked about a report Australia’s last pre-war shipment of fuel was due to arrive on the weekend, Mr Albanese said supply had been secured well into the future but added the nation was not immune from the global economic shocks of the war in the Middle East.

Pressed on Brunei’s human rights record, including its Sharia-law policy of punishing homosexuality with death by stoning, Mr Albanese declared Australia had spoken up on human rights in global forums.

Asked if he’d discussed the issue with the sultan, he said the focus of Wednesday’s talks was Australia’s fuel and security needs.

The prime minister now travels to Malaysia for similar petrol and diesel supply talks with his counterpart in Kuala Lumpur.

Anthony Albanese has issued a joint statement with the Sultan of Brunei on energy and food security, calling it a “commitment to ensuring that essential goods continue to flow between our two countries.”

“Brunei Darussalam and Australia share deep concern over the situation in the Middle East and its consequences for our region, such as the impact on energy and food supply chains and prices,” the statement reads.

“We are committed to working together to strengthen energy supply chain resilience, including by deepening regional cooperation, accelerating alternative energy resources including renewable energy, and maintaining open trade flows.

“We also underscore the importance of food security through stable and efficient supply chains to promote economic growth and stability in our region.

“In this context, we reaffirm our commitment to strengthen energy and food security, to support the flow of essential goods between our two countries, including petroleum oils, such as diesel and crude oil, as well as agriculture and agri-food essentials and key agricultural inputs such as urea, to avoid unjustified import and export restrictions and to notify and consult each other on any disruptions with ramifications on the trade of energy and food related supplies.

“We call on other trading partners to join us in ensuring global energy supply chains are kept open, for the benefit of the security and prosperity of our people.”

US President Donald Trump has reportedly told ABC News Correspondent Jonathan Karl that he is not thinking of extending the two-week ceasefire with Iran.

According to Mr Karl, the president told him during an interview: “I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead.”

Mr Karl then reportedly asked Mr Trump if the war will end with a deal or “do you just say, look, we knocked out their capability and that’s it?”

“It could end either way,” Mr Trump said, “But I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild.”

“They really do have a different regime now. No matter what, we took out the radicals. They’re gone, no longer with us.”

According to the reporter, Mr Trump also made a claim that if he wasn’t the US president, “the world would be torn to pieces.”

After Chris Bowen wrapped up his press conference, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke took the opportunity to share his thoughts on Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s new plan to boot migrants out of the county.

“When you look at the different issues that they’ve raised, I still can’t work out what the gap they’re wanting to describe is between the powers that an immigration minister already has ... and what they’re wanting to add in terms of character tests,” he says.

Mr Burke accused Mr Taylor of wanting a “discussion and a meme” with no clear policy, and said he is “puzzled” by the idea.

The Sultan of Brunei has welcomed Anthony Albanese to his Royal Palace for formal talks on fuel supplies, telling the Prime Minister that he considers Australia to be a close friend and trusted partner.

Following a visit to a fertiliser plant on Wednesday morning which supplies Australian producers, Mr Albanese has held a bilateral meeting with the monarch who has ruled the oil-rich Asian nation since 1967.

“At a time of deepening uncertainty and global conflict, cooperation in our region is more important than ever before,” Mr Albanese told Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah.

“Our prosperity, security and economic future are intertwined, and we saw that this morning when I visited the fertiliser plant, looking at the cooperation that we have and how it is of mutual benefit to the people of both our nations.”

After Virgin followed Qantas in announcing fare hikes and cuts to flights, Chris Bowen says he fears the response from some quarters is conflating fuel shortages with fuel costs.

“This is not about a shortage of jet fuel. This is about the cost of jet fuel,” the Energy Minister said.

“The cost of jet fuel is way up around the world, just as the cost of diesel is way up, and that’s impacting on airline operations around the world.

“Obviously, it’s a matter for the airlines to manage in terms of their own commercial decisions, and what they’re doing is trying to manage those very high costs in a way which gives as much notice to Australians as possible about what routes will be affected.”

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has given an update on the number of service stations with fuel shortages, which has come down in most States over recent days.

He also announced Export Finance Australia has made deals with two more smaller fuel importers to underwrite shipments so they can buy available cargoes on the international market even if the prices are very high.

• NSW: 84 with no diesel, 17 with no fuel at all
• Victoria: 18 with no diesel, 11 with no unleaded petrol
• Queensland: 33 with no diesel, 20 with no ULP
• SA: 3 with no diesel, 15 with no ULP
• WA: 8 with no diesel, 22 with no ULP
• Tasmania: 7 with no diesel, 5 with no ULP
• NT: 3 with no diesel, 1 with no ULP
• ACT: 0 with no diesel, 1 with no ULP

Surrounded by a tangle of gleaming pipes and towering chimneys, the Prime Minister has visited a fertiliser plant in Brunei Darussalam which produces nearly 10 per cent of Australia’s urea supplies.

Anthony Albanese was clad in a grey and green safety jacket, tan pants and black lace up boots when he stepped off a mint-green bus alongside Harri Kiiski, the chief executive of Brunei Fertiliser Industries.

Along with securing Australia’s long term fuel supplies, Mr Albanese is hoping to use his visit here to boost imports of fertiliser-grade urea, which have taken a hit as trade disruptions from the war in the Middle East ripple around the world.

Much of Dr Kiiski and Mr Albanese’s conversation outside the plant was drowned out by the sound of industrial machinery, but the chief executive could be heard explaining the chemical process by which ammonia is produced before being converted into fertiliser grade urea.

Around 600 workers are employed at the plant, which started production in 2022 and at maximum capacity can produce 1.365 million tonnes of fertiliser every year.

Mr Albanese is now visiting Brunei’s royal palace for an audience with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah: one of the world’s richest men and also the world’s longest-serving head of state.

Later the Prime Minister will fly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for further fuel supply talks.

Jim Chalmers says the government has all hands on deck as it seeks to secure Australia’s fuel supplies amid the global oil crisis arising from the war in the Middle East.

The Treasurer flew to Washington DC on Wednesday morning for talks with counterparts from key countries that supply fuel to Australia, as well as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The IMF issued a warning overnight about the looming risk of a global recession and urged the government to avoid cost-of-living relief measures that could fuel inflation in its Budget next month.

Dr Chalmers will meet ministers from Singapore, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and the UK, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong are holding talks with leaders from Brunei and Malaysia.

“In our government, it is all hands on deck when it comes comes to securing more fuel, engaging with industry, engaging with our international partners to try and get through a difficult period for the global economy and the consequences for our own economy and for Australians in communities right around our country,” Dr Chalmers told reporters at Brisbane Airport before his departure.

“The IMF is sounding the alarm in some pretty severe scenarios that they have published overnight.”

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Donald Trump, when pushed on whether the war with Iran was “over” in a new interview, says it’s “close to over”.

Mr Trump sat down with Maria Bartiromo from Fox Business for an exclusive interview.

“I had to divert. If I didn’t do that, right now you would have Iran with a nuclear weapon,” Mr Trump said in an excerpt from the interview posted online.

“If they had a nuclear weapon, you would be calling everyone over there sir, and you don’t want to do that.”

Bartiromo interjected, saying Mr Trump keeps saying “was”, presumable in other comments in the interview, asking: “Is this war over?”

“I think it’s close to over, yeah. I mean, I view it as very close to over.

If I pulled up stakes right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country. And were not finished. We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.”