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Former Chief of Defence Force and current Australian Ambassador to the European Union, Angus Campbell AO has called for the nation and Europe to cooperation rather than working in parallel.
The former Chief of the Defence Force was speaking on an international panel on supply chain resilience at the International Mining and Resources Conference 2026 in Sydney.
He called for the two to work ‘in co[1]production, in cooperation’ across around 60 critical minerals, creating a coherent contribution to markets in Europe and globally.
“So far, we’ve seen Europe and Australia often working in parallel, in complement, but in parallel,” Ambassador Campbell said.
Only about nine percent of Australia’s critical minerals currently flow to Europe, leaving significant untapped potential, according to Ambassador Campbell.
In addition, the former CDF highlighted the value of Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve as a ‘shock absorber’ for global supply chains.
The reserve would initially focus on gallium, antimony and rare earths, which he described as the immediate need. All three have been subject to Chinese export restrictions in recent years.
“It's not great piles of ore sitting somewhere in the outback,” Ambassador Campbell said.
“It's much more about offtake agreements, forward contracts, demand and supply aggregation.”
Stefan Rouenhoff, Parliamentary State Secretary at Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, told delegates Europe was confronting ‘the weaponisation of trade relations’, where supply dependencies are used as leverage over economies. He said the long-standing practice of sourcing at the lowest cost ‘is over’.
Germany is increasing its raw materials fund by 50 percent to back projects that secure offtake for German industry, and is calling for price floors, price corridors and stockpiles to protect projects when prices are driven down.
Mr Rouenhoff cited Arafura's Nolans rare earths project, announced by Minister for Resources Madeleine King earlier this week, as a model for Australia–Germany cooperation.
Discussion spanned tungsten refining, battery materials, permanent magnets and joint European stockpiling.
This year’s IMARC has attracted strong attendance from Australia's critical minerals sector, including Arafura, Barkly Rare Earths, Australian Strategic Materials, Victory Metals, St George Mining, Critica and EQ Resources.
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