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Trump in Japan 'New deal on rare earths and other critical minerals signed' · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump is in Japan on the second
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  Speaker 1: leg of his Asia tour. In last hour, Trump has
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  Speaker 1: met the new Japanese Prime ministers Sene Takaichi in Tokyo.
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  Speaker 1: She's keen to strengthen ties between the two nations. Local
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  Speaker 1: media reports say a deal on rare earths and other
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  Speaker 1: critical minerals needed for high tech manufacturing is almost complete.
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  Speaker 1: Sheila Smith is a Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific Studies
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  Speaker 1: at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, d C.
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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the.
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  Speaker 2: Program, Thank you, Aman, delighted to be with you.
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  Speaker 1: Trump and Takeicha are on a lot of ways ideological allies.
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  Speaker 1: What can we expect from their meeting?
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  Speaker 2: So I think this is important for the new Japanese
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  Speaker 2: Prime minister. She's just been elected Prime minister by the
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  Speaker 2: parliament there just within the week, so this is a
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  Speaker 2: very important diplomatic meeting for her. She'll want to establish
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  Speaker 2: a personal relationship with the President Trump. She is a
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  Speaker 2: mentee of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who, as you
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  Speaker 2: may remember, was Prime Minister during President Trump's first term
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  Speaker 2: in office, so she is very anxious to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that she has the same kind of connection with Trump
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  Speaker 2: that he did well.
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  Speaker 1: The US over the years has been a pretty unpredictable
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  Speaker 1: ally under Trump. What kind of challenges will the new
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  Speaker 1: prime minister face when she's trying to maintain strong ties with.
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  Speaker 2: The US well, of course, the two issues for US
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  Speaker 2: allies Japan obviously, but Europeans as well has been trade
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  Speaker 2: and defense spending or defense contributions for the alliance. The
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  Speaker 2: trade agreement with the US and Japan, of course, was
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  Speaker 2: resolved over the summer and the previous Prime minister is guidance,
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  Speaker 2: but there's still some unknown questions about five hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty billion dollars in Japanese foreign direct investment that was
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  Speaker 2: promised alongside the teriff productions that the President Trump agreed to.
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  Speaker 2: I think you saw pieces of that deal stretch into
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  Speaker 2: this meeting. For example, there were a question there were
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  Speaker 2: the Japanese government has agreed to buy forward trucks for
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  Speaker 2: its supply and also apparently there's a new deal on
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  Speaker 2: cooperation between Japan the United States on the supply chain
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  Speaker 2: for rare earth and other critical minerals. So there's still
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  Speaker 2: an economic dialogue ongoing and there will be I think
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  Speaker 2: in the months and the year to come. A deepening
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  Speaker 2: question about how much Japan is going to spend on
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  Speaker 2: its defense as well.
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  Speaker 1: So it sounds like you don't expect those questions to
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  Speaker 1: be resolved at this meeting. The ongoing negotiations are going
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  Speaker 1: to take a lot longer than that.
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  Speaker 2: I think so on the defense piece, I think the
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  Speaker 2: economic piece will continue to be central to the US
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  Speaker 2: Japan alliance as it is with other US allies, but
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  Speaker 2: the defense piece will be probably next year, will become
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  Speaker 2: a little bit more on the front burner. Japan has
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  Speaker 2: a host Nation Support Agreement with United States, which is
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  Speaker 2: Japanese government spending on US forces stationed in Japan. That
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  Speaker 2: is up for renewal and negotiation next year. But of
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  Speaker 2: course there's also this question that the Trump administration really
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  Speaker 2: wants to see its allies spend more on defense. Now,
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  Speaker 2: whether there'll be a numerical target as there was in
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  Speaker 2: Europe for five percent of GDP spending, I doubt it
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  Speaker 2: in the Japanese case, but there may be pressures like
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  Speaker 2: that coming from the Trump administration further down the road.
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  Speaker 1: Both leaders are quite hawkish on China. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: they're going to find common ground there? So?
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  Speaker 2: I think so, you know, President Trump is heading towards
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  Speaker 2: the next set of meetings in Korea, the APEC meetings,
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  Speaker 2: and here it's on Thursday. He's expected to meet with
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  Speaker 2: President Shijimpin. There is a framework agreement, according to the
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  Speaker 2: Secretary of Treasury in the United States government. He says
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  Speaker 2: he's reached a framework, a basic framework of understanding with
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  Speaker 2: the Chinese, but until Trump meets she, we won't really
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  Speaker 2: know for sure what the details of that are. The
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  Speaker 2: expectation is that rare earth exports from China to the
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  Speaker 2: United States will resume they've been halted, and also that
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  Speaker 2: Trump will not go forward with his idea of placing
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  Speaker 2: one hundred percent tariffs on Chinese goods. But make no
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  Speaker 2: mistake about it, this is going to be a difficult
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  Speaker 2: conversation and I don't expect all of the US China
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  Speaker 2: economic issues to be resolved on Thursday. But this is
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  Speaker 2: one of the big pieces of the President's Asia trip.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Sheila Smith from the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you.