Japan, France lock in deals on minerals to cut reliance on China | East Asia Tonight (Apr 1)
Macron meets Takaichi in Tokyo. Also on East Asia Tonight: South Korea and Indonesia deepen defence, trade and energy cooperation as Prabowo visits Seoul; and Trump says the war on Iran could be over in two to three weeks.
00:00 Headlines
01:24 Macron in Japan
03:22 Prabowo in South Korea
07:35 Trump says war on Iran to be over soon
17:01 Asian shares rebound on hopes of conflict’s end
31:50 Trump mulls pulling out of NATO
33:05 Roland Lim explains energy transition
46:02 IFRC on war’s impact on aid
55:37 China cherry blossom viewing
14 Comments
Good evening! 🙋🏻Happy April Fool's Day!
and you don't touch on UN report about the biggest energy cutoff(3 months fuel blockade, still ongoing) by theU$ on Cuba.
UN Reports and Findings (2025–2026)
Humanitarian "Collapse" Warning (February 2026): UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric expressed extreme concern that Cuba faces a humanitarian collapse due to a U.S. executive order (signed January 29, 2026) that threatens tariffs on third countries supplying oil to the island [17, 23].
Impact on Healthcare: The UN World Health Organization (WHO) reported in March 2026 that hospitals are struggling to maintain emergency and intensive care due to fuel shortages, forcing the postponement of thousands of surgeries [13].
Special Rapporteur Findings: UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures, noted that the blockade is the primary obstacle to Cuba's development and a violation of the human rights of its people.
According to Bloomberg, China has delivered over 260,000 barrels of diesel to the Philippines and 100,000 barrels of distillate fuel to Vietnam in late March 2026, aiming to ease severe shortages in Southeast Asia caused by a Middle East energy crisis.
This move signals support , despite China also shortage of fuel.
So Venezuela is a colony of theU$ now ? who's next ?
The U.S. Treasury Department has issued a General License authorizing the signing of investment and operation contracts in Venezuela's mining sector.
What minerals does France have? It’s mostly African, and regimes propped up by the French foreign legions.
AI depends on supply chains – resilience comes from diversification, not dependence.
2023年7月から2026年4月にかけて、フィリピン最高裁判所への係属案件を通じて慎重に提出される情報に基づき、既存の韓国最高裁判所における取り決めに関する最新情報の更新を継続いたします。本件は、私本人より直接通知を行うまでの間、有効とします。なお、本件における法的代理業務は、Pro Hac Vice（特定事件限りの弁護許可）およびPro Se（本人訴訟）の形式にて執り行われております。韓国国内における弁護活動を行うための法的権限は、羅卿瑗（ナ・ギョンウォン）議員の支援の下、韓国国会を通じて確立されたものです。これに反する主張がなされた場合には、羅卿瑗議員、または韓国最高裁判所長官宛てにご照会ください。
Bah na ladak Ridèlle caméra china royaume de Ridèlle katou
BOTH France and Japan have little Rare Earth minerals to deal with….even much less the tech know-how and equipment to process those minerals if they have rally found those RE minerals!! Unless Japan somehow realised their "much advertised" new found RE minerals under the sea south of Japan !! Remember France also hosted an AI Summit in Paris 2 years ago…trying to set the rules for "world" development of AI while France herself has only very little elementary AI development!!
The moral of the story is don't be complicit with AIPAC 😂😂😂
French and japan is more like Canada and Mexico, without America , Canada and Mexico is nobody! Without China rare earth minerals, French and Japan are minerals less, they don’t know who would feed them with the rare earth minerals for their industries except self inflating their importance in the world.
Why the media is bent on twisting the narratives and gaslighting for war with China, by pitting Japan against China. If China builds minerals extraction media like CNA said China did this so that it doesn’t have to depend on France? Every country can do what they want within their borders for their nation but it doesn’t mean that it is doing this to break relationship with other countries which CNA is implying. Fake media like CNA causing region tension when there is none.
Two foolish nations ie France n Japan with very little natural resources try to rely on each other for survival. What a joke
An indian move amount to nothing