Anthony Albanese sat next to man of the hour at APEC dinner celebrating Donald Trump in South Korea

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had the best seat in the house next to Donald Trump at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit dinner with the US President praising him for a “fantastic job” on the $13bn critical minerals deal struck last week.

The dinner hosted by South Korean president Lee Jae Myung as part of the APEC summit is the third time Mr Albanese has met Mr Trump in person in the past two months.

The meeting comes just a week after a landmark $13bn agreement between Australia and the US, pledging an immediate pipeline of critical minerals and rare earth elements – materials vital to modern technology.

During his opening remarks, Mr Trump talked up the critical minerals deal.

“We had a great meeting a week ago … You’ve done a fantastic job,” he said to Mr Albanese, patting him on the arm.

“We’re working together on rare earths, but we’re working on a lot of things together.”

The two countries were seated beside each other at the private dinner for eight world leaders to celebrate the US President, labelled as a “special dinner in honour of President Donald J. Trump”.

The dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Gyeongju also included Singapore’s Lawrence Wong, Thailand’s Anutin Charnvirakul, Canada’s Mark Carney, Vietnam’s Luong Cuong, and South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung.

Mr Trump also said he had struck a deal with South Korea during the dinner and was optimistic he would land a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Mr Trump and President Xi are set to meet to resolve their trade dispute after the US slapped tariffs on China and other nations across the world.