India eyes trade from Japan during PM's visit as Chinese trade with Japan decreases due to tensions

[ViruRulez]

NEW DELHI: With one eye firmly on China, PM Manmohan Singh on Sunday left for Japan on what is probaly the most significant attempt to emphasise and implement its Look East policy. In what was a clear giveaway, moments before his departure, Singh said China blocking export to Japan of rare earth metals, which is crucial for Japan's high-tech industry, was an opportunity for other countries to cooperate in this field with Tokyo. Japan believes that China might be deliberately preventing such exports as ties between the two countries have hit rock-bottom owing to the crisis triggered by the arrest of a Chinese fishing boat captain by Japanese authorities near a disputed island in the East China Sea. "This should be added incentive for many countries which have a potential to produce rare earths to take advantage of that opportunity," Singh told a group of Japanese journalists. He added though that India hoped that the two coutries would resolve the issue peacefully through diplomatic channels. China currently controls almost 90% of the rare earth global trade. India is among the top five producers of rare earth metals. According to foreign policy experts, India's efforts to cement a strategic relationship with Japan couldn't have come at a better time as Tokyo is only now realising that its China policy is in a shambles. As former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal told TOI, the time is now favourable for India to build Japan as a bulwark against China's expansion as that is where Beijing can be "checkmated". "What we are doing now is a strong manifestation of a trend which was already there. Japan's efforts to tie up China in a close economic relationship has not entirely succeeded and there is much greater concern over China's growth in both Japan and the US," said Sibal. He added that India's emergence as an important ally of the US, and their nuclear deal, was one of the incentives for Japan to shift its focus from South-East Asia and China. While the deal for civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries will not be signed during the visit, Singh said it would be a "win-win" deal once it is finalised. He said India is committed to maintaining a "unilateral and voluntary" moratorium on explosive nuclear testing and has "no intention" of revising that commitment. The two sides are expected to announce on Monday the conclusion of talks for Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement or CEPA. Many believe even CEPA in its finalised form is a manifestation of India's urge to deepen its strategic relationship with Tokyo. While it opens up a huge market for Japan, which is reeling under a saturated Chinese market, it hasn't evoked any real commitment from Tokyo on opening up its labour sector for Indian workers. "Japan is a major economic partner of India. We have embarked upon mega infrastructure projects with Japanese assistance which have the potential of transforming our economy. Our trade and economic relationship is set to enter a new phase," Singh said in a departure statement. On his way back, Singh will also pay an official visit to Malaysia before attending the 8th India-ASEAN summit and 5th East Asia summit in Hanoi. He is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao in Hanoi.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Eye-on-Beijing-PM-looks-to-woo-Tokyo/articleshow/6804686.cms At last Manmohan is acting like an economist again and trying to do what China has been doing with our neighboring countries for ages. Build a trade and business relationship across Asia at first and that is the only way we can compete with China as a regional power in the long run. :cheer: Hope he also improves trade relations with Malayasia and Vietnam in the next leg of the tour as he visits those two countries too. However, Japan is much more important being a much larger economy and hence chances of a lot more trade with them. The only noticeable is that Japan is not willing to accommodate workers from India. Anyways, hope that there is not much brain drain in the coming decades and people instead remain in India and work for its development. And Indians would also have had a tough time learning Japanese even if that was allowed. :giggle:

[ViruRulez]

India agrees to long-term supply of rare earths for Japan

Tokyo said Tuesday that India has agreed to provide a stable supply of rare earth minerals to Japan as the high-tech economy looks to diversify sources after a spat with key provider China. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who wound up his three-day visit to Japan on Tuesday, made the pledge during talks with the Japanese side on Monday, industry minister Akihiro Ohata said at a news conference. "Prime Minister Singh told us that he will cooperate in long-term supply of rare earth minerals," Ohata said, according to a trade ministry official. On Monday, Singh met Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Ohata and other Japanese officials and agreed to broadly cooperate in rare earth deals. In a statement, the premiers "decided to explore the possibility of bilateral cooperation in development, recycling and re-use of rare earths and rare metals and in research and development of their industrial substitutes." On Sunday, Ohata met China's commerce minister in Tokyo and urged Beijing to normalise rare earth exports after Japan said shipments were blocked during a diplomatic row sparked by the arrest of a Chinese trawlerman in disputed waters. Japan's stockpile of rare earth minerals, used in the manufacture of high-tech goods, could be exhausted by March or April without fresh imports from China, officials have said. China, which controls more than 95 percent of the global market, has repeatedly denied it curbed exports in retaliation over the dispute, but all 31 Japanese companies handling the minerals have reported disruption to shipments. Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tuesday that he wants to raise the issue if he meets his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of a 16-nation Asian summit in Vietnam later this week.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-india-long-term-rare-earths-japan.html At least he is successful in convincing them of maybe buying our rare earth minerals. It is mentioned that we are one of world's top 5 producers of rare earth minerals. But on a second thought will we also not need them ourselves in the future considering that our tech sector in increasing at an incredible pace. :hmmm: Civil nuclear deal was not finalized however as per news and MMS did not force it on Japan considering their sensitivities etc.