USA and Japan strengthen alliance against China during Trump trip

The USA and Japan want to cooperate more closely in the future in the extraction, processing and delivery of rare earths. The aim is to “ensure the resilience and security of supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths,” says an agreement signed in Tokyo by US President Donald Trump and Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

The background is the quasi-monopoly of our common rival China. In the trade dispute with the USA, Beijing has imposed export controls on rare earths and magnets made from them. On Thursday, Trump wants to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea on the sidelines of the APEC economic summit to discuss the bilateral trade conflict.

21 countries around the Pacific work together in the APEC group. In addition to the USA, these also include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea. They want to strengthen economic growth by reducing trade barriers.

Trump is using his trip to several Asian countries to conclude various agreements on rare earths. By expanding cooperation, the US government wants to reduce dependence on China. Rare earths are also of crucial importance for the high-tech country of Japan. The metals are used, for example, for the production of smartphones, wind turbines, electric cars and military equipment.

They want to take further steps towards a “new golden age” of the “ever-growing Japanese-American alliance,” said another joint statement signed by Trump and Takaichi. At the start of their meeting in Tokyo, Trump acknowledged that Japan, under Takaichi’s leadership, was increasing their country’s military capabilities “quite significantly.” The US has already received orders from Japan “for a very large amount of new military equipment,” Trump said.

At the start of her term in office, Takaichi recently announced that she would increase the defense budget to two percent of gross domestic product by March. This goal would be achieved two years earlier than previously planned. The US government under Trump demanded more financial commitment from many allies in defense spending. NATO has already responded to pressure from Washington in this way. Takaichi described the security alliance with Japan’s protective power, the USA, as a “cornerstone” of her foreign and security policy in view of China’s growing desire for power and the threat from North Korea’s missile and nuclear program.