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AAP
AAP
Politics
Michael Ramsey

WA to talk critical minerals with Indonesian president

Roger Cook will talk minerals with Joko Widodo during the Indonesian president's trip to Australia. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Talks with visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo could place Western Australia in the box seat to fuel the Asian giant's clean-energy aspirations.

Premier Roger Cook will travel to Sydney to meet with Mr Widodo, who is set to arrive on Monday for bilateral talks.

They are likely to discuss Indonesia's transition towards renewable energy and development of its electric vehicle manufacturing industry.

Indonesia is the world's largest producer of nickel but looks to Australia for the supply of lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries.

"Clearly, the Indonesian government are very keen to understand how they can develop their interests around critical minerals in partnership with Australia and Western Australia," Mr Cook told reporters.

"They are very keen to develop their electric vehicle capabilities as well.

"All of that stuff requires resources, and WA has those resources in abundance so you can understand why they're keen to discuss those issues with us."

Mr Cook has previously visited Indonesia in his capacity as trade minister and plans to return for another mission in September.

The trip to Sydney will also allow Mr Cook to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for the first time since replacing Mark McGowan as premier.

He will lobby his Labor counterpart to retain the existing GST revenue split amid agitation from other state and territory leaders.

"There's only one priority, and that is to protect Western Australia's fair share of the GST and making sure that we get our fair share of infrastructure investment," Mr Cook said.

"You look right across Western Australia, you see our economy growing, jobs growth is strong and you see demand on our infrastructure.

"So we need to make sure that we drive the message home to the commonwealth government that Western Australia is the engine room of our economy, and the engine room of our future economy."

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