{"id":16739,"date":"2026-05-04T07:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/16739\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T07:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T07:10:27","slug":"japan-and-australia-prime-ministers-boost-cooperation-during-global-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/16739\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan and Australia prime ministers boost cooperation during global tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 The prime ministers of Japan and Australia agreed to deepen cooperation in a wide arrange of areas including energy security, defense and critical minerals as the Iran war<\/a> threatens global supply chains.<\/p>\n

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met her Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese<\/a> at Australia\u2019s Parliament House on Monday during Takaichi\u2019s first visit to the country as national leader.<\/p>\n

Takaichi said they held strategic discussions on China, Southeast Asia, Pacific Island countries, nuclear issues and abductions by North Korea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> had been inflicting enormous impact on the Indo-Pacific. We affirmed that Japan and Australian will closely communicate with each other in responding with a sense of urgency,\u201d Takaichi told reporters through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

Australia provides almost half of Japan\u2019s liquefied natural gas. Japan is one of Australia\u2019s top five suppliers of refined gasoline and diesel.<\/p>\n

Albanese traveled to Singapore<\/a>, Brunei and Malaysia in recent weeks to shore up supplies of gasoline and diesel following disruptions caused by attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel beginning in February.<\/p>\n

The bilateral agreements reached Monday would benefit the populations of Japan and Australia, Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Australians, it will mean we are less vulnerable to global shocks like we are seeing right now because of conflict in the Middle East,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur joint statement on energy security reaffirms our commitment to navigate the current energy crisis together and maintain open trade flows of essential energy goods including liquid fuels and gas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The statement on economic security cooperation commits to consulting on contingencies \u201cincluding those related to geopolitical tensions, economic coercion or other significant market interruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreements also take aim at China\u2019s control and manipulation of the global production of heavy rare earths<\/a>, which are used for making powerful, heat-resistant magnets in industries such as defense and electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe express our strong concerns over all forms of economic coercion, and the use of non-market policies and practices that are leading to harmful overcapacity and market distortions, as well as export restrictions, particularly on critical minerals,\u201d the joint statement by the two countries said.<\/p>\n

The two prime ministers \u201cannounce the elevation of critical minerals as a core pillar of our economic security relationship,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Australia would provide up to 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($930 million) to support critical minerals projects involving Japan.<\/p>\n

The prime ministers also announced new steps to enhance Japan-Australia defense and security cooperation.<\/p>\n

Takaichi\u2019s visit comes two weeks after the Japanese and Australian defense ministers signed contracts to deliver the first three of a AU$10 billion ($6.5 billion) fleet of Japanese-designed warships<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the first three Mogami-class frigates in Japan. Australia plans to build another eight in a shipyard in Western Australia state.<\/p>\n

Albanese, a keen disc jockey who performs at charity events under the stage name DJ Albo, joked about Takaichi\u2019s renowned interest in heavy metal<\/a> music.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanae and I will spend more time together later today and we will continue our discussions including on issues like heavy metal music and other important matters of state,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 The prime ministers of Japan and Australia agreed to deepen cooperation in a wide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2842,12707,923,6700,217,1186,1001,14,13367,448,8,1505,1732,13366,6430,1250,180,358,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-16739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","9":"tag-anthony-albanese","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-government","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-international-news","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-iran-government","17":"tag-iran-war","18":"tag-japan","19":"tag-japan-government","20":"tag-ltd","21":"tag-metals-and-mining","22":"tag-mitsubishi-heavy-industries","23":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-sanae-takaichi","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}