00:00Another sort of big meeting that we're tracking, of course, today is Japanese Prime Minister
00:04Senai Takeichi. She has arrived in Australia for a three-day visit with defense, energy,
00:10security, and critical minerals supply on the agenda. Let's bring in Bloomberg's Paul Allen.
00:15He joins us now with more. And Paul, just tell us more about the significance and the timing of this
00:20visit. Yeah, the timing very significant against this uncertain geopolitical backdrop. Of course,
00:28Japan, for its part, would like more to do with rare earths LNG supply as well. That's certainly
00:34something Australia can help with. And there's already been the Linus Agreement, which is going
00:38to see the first shipments of rare earths to Japan from Australia as well. And for Australia's part,
00:43it needs refined fuel from Japan also. But it's not just the timing of this, it's the frequency of
00:49these meetings as well. Senai Takeichi, of course, has only been Prime Minister for a little over
00:54six months in Japan. This will be her fourth meeting with Anthony Albanese. So necessity are
01:00really making this already close relationship even closer. And it was just a couple of weeks
01:05ago that Australia and Japan signed a $7 billion deal for 11 new frigates. Japanese firms are now
01:11the second largest investors in Australia. So geopolitical reality is really driving the two
01:16countries closer together at the moment. Paul, before, well, her last stop before Oz was in Vietnam,
01:26what were the agreements, reminders, reached on that specific visit?
01:32Yeah, very similar themes, actually, deals to do with rare earths, because Vietnam has the world's
01:38six largest reserves of rare earths. Also agreements on communications, infrastructure development,
01:43irrigation as well. And Japan really wants to lift investment in Vietnam to $5 billion annually,
01:49get two-way trade to $60 billion by 2030 as well. So it's very similar themes to the sorts of
01:56deals
01:57that she's been seeking here in Australia. Timing also interesting because the defence minister for
02:01Japan, Shinjiro Koizumi, is also going to be in the Philippines this week, where he'll be overseeing
02:06defence exercises. Japan's self-defence force is going to be involved, fully armed, participating in
02:13those military exercises for the first time. So once again, a real reflection of the geopolitical
02:19realities of the moment.
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