Overview
- A package of agreements signed in Canberra on Monday commits both governments to work together on energy, critical minerals and national economic security.
- The joint declaration sets a standing process to consult on market shocks and economic coercion that could disrupt key supply chains.
- Australia will provide up to A$1.3 billion for projects involving Japanese partners, with early priorities including Lynas’s rare earths plant in Kalgoorlie and Alcoa’s gallium recovery project, and Trade Minister Don Farrell will seek to advance deals in talks in Japan in two weeks.
- Leaders vowed urgent coordination to keep liquid fuels flowing during the Strait of Hormuz disruption, which Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said is having an enormous impact across the Indo‑Pacific.
- Defence cooperation will widen to prioritise testing of new advanced weapons in Australia, while a proposal to lease Japanese submarines as a fallback to AUKUS was dismissed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong.