JAPAN-EU: Joint Statement Highlights Critical Mineral Supply Chains As Focus

Following on from the earlier bullet regarding the EU-Japan summit (see 'JAPAN-EU: Emphasis On Security & Econ Coercion, No Mention Of Rare Earths Deal', 11:00BST), within the joint statement and attached Competitiveness Alliance, there no detail on the prospective rare earths procurement deal that had been mooted as one of the potential concrete outcomes of the talks. The statement did, though, outline efforts to cooperate on the broader area supply chains for critical minerals. 

• The Competitiveness Alliance highlights the expansion of a High-Level Economic Dialogue, where collaboration "includes addressing threats to the resilience of supply chains, strategic dependencies, economic coercion, non-market policies and practices, as well as overcapacity resulting from them, promotion and protection of critical and emerging technology, research security, the physical and cyber security of critical infrastructure, and export control particularly concerning critical minerals, including the rare earth elements, that pose economic security risks to the EU and Japan."
• The two sides agreed on "increasing supply chain resilience and reducing strategic dependencies, including strengthening and diversifying critical minerals supply chains."
• Both Tokyo and Brussels find themselves caught between China and the US when it comes to procurement of critical minerals. These are required as part of decarbonisation drives (notably for EVs) and efforts to bolster tech development (particularly semiconductor development and manufacturing).