Japan Diet OKs defense cooperation pact with Philippines
The reciprocal access agreement eases restrictions on the movement of personnel between the two forces to facilitate joint drills and disaster relief operations, making the Philippines Japan's third RAA partner after Australia and Britain.
The House of Councillors, Japan's upper chamber, approved the pact after the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, endorsed it last month. The two Asian countries signed the deal in July last year during two-plus-two ministerial security talks in Manila.
Tokyo and Manila share concerns over Beijing's maritime activities, as Chinese vessels have clashed with Philippine ships near disputed shoals in the South China Sea and repeatedly entered waters around the Japan-controlled, China-claimed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
On Friday, Japan's upper house also approved an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement with Italy to streamline procedures for providing supplies and services such as food, fuel, ammunition and repair work between their forces.
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The Mainichi
an hour ago
- The Mainichi
US and China to talk in Stockholm on trade with eye on Trump-Xi summit later this year
WASHINGTON (AP) -- When top U.S. and Chinese officials meet in Stockholm, they are almost certain to agree to at least leaving tariffs at the current levels while working toward a meeting between their presidents later this year for a more lasting trade deal between the world's two largest economies, analysts say. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are set to hold talks for the third time this year -- this round in the Swedish capital, nearly four months after President Donald Trump upset global trade with his sweeping tariff proposal, including an import tax that shot up to 145% on Chinese goods. "We have the confines of a deal with China," Trump said Friday before leaving for Scotland. Bessent told MSNBC on Wednesday that the two countries after talks in Geneva and London have reached a "status quo," with the U.S. taxing imported goods from China at 30% and China responding with a 10% tariff, on top of tariffs prior to the start of Trump's second term. "Now we can move on to discussing other matters in terms of bringing the economic relationship into balance," Bessent said. He was referring to the U.S. running a $295.5 billion trade deficit last year. The U.S. seeks an agreement that would enable it to export more to China and shift the Chinese economy more toward domestic consumer spending. The Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing hopes "there will be more consensus and cooperation and less misperception" coming out of the talks. With an eye on a possible leaders' summit, Stockholm could provide some answers as to the timeline and viability of that particular goal ahead of a possible meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. "The meeting will be important in starting to set the stage for a fall meeting between Trump and Xi," said Wendy Cutler, a former U.S. trade negotiator and now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute. "Beijing will likely insist on detailed preparations before they agree to a leaders' meeting." In Stockholm, the two sides are likely to focus on commercial announcements to be made at a leaders' summit as well as agreements to address "major irritants," such as China's industrial overcapacity and its lack of control over chemicals used to make fentanyl, also to be announced when Xi and Trump should meet, Cutler said. Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said Stockholm could be the first real opportunity for the two governments to address structural reform issues including market access in China for U.S. companies. What businesses will be seeking coming out of Stockholm would largely be "the atmosphere" -- how the two sides characterize the discussions. They will also look for clues about a possible leaders' summit because any real deal will hinge on the two presidents meeting each other, he said. Fentanyl-related tariffs are likely a focus for China In Stockholm, Beijing will likely demand the removal of the 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump imposed earlier this year, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center. This round of the U.S.-China trade dispute began with fentanyl, when Trump in February imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, citing that China failed to curb the outflow of the chemicals used to make the drug. The following month, Trump added another 10% tax for the same reason. Beijing retaliated with extra duties on some U.S. goods, including coal, liquefied natural gas, and farm products such as beef, chicken, pork and soy. In Geneva, both sides climbed down from three-digit tariffs rolled out following Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs in April, but the U.S. kept the 20% "fentanyl" tariffs, in addition to the 10% baseline rate -- to which China responded by keeping the same 10% rate on U.S. products. These across-the-board duties were unchanged when the two sides met in London a month later to negotiate over non-tariff measures such as export controls on critical products. The Chinese government has long protested that American politicians blame China for the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. but argued the root problem lies with the U.S. itself. Washington says Beijing is not doing enough to regulate precursor chemicals that flow out of China into the hands of drug dealers. In July, China placed two fentanyl ingredients under enhanced control, a move seen as in response to U.S. pressure and signaling goodwill. Gabriel Wildau, managing director at the consultancy Teneo, said he doesn't expect any tariff to go away in Stockholm but that tariff relief could be part of a final trade deal. "It's possible that Trump would cancel the 20% tariff that he has explicitly linked with fentanyl, but I would expect the final tariff level on China to be at least as high as the 15-20% rate contained in the recent deals with Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam," Wildau said. US wants China to dump less, buy less oil from Russia and Iran China's industrial overcapacity is as much a headache for the United States as it is for the European Union. Even Beijing has acknowledged the problem but suggested it might be difficult to address. America's trade imbalance with China has decreased from a peak of $418 billion in 2018, according to the Census Bureau. But China has found new markets for its goods and as the world's dominant manufacturer ran a global trade surplus approaching $1 trillion last year -- somewhat larger than the size of the U.S. overall trade deficit in 2024. And China's emergence as a manufacturer of electric vehicles and other emerging technologies has suddenly made it more of a financial and geopolitical threat for those same industries based in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea. "Some enterprises, especially manufacturing enterprises, feel more deeply that China's manufacturing capabilities are too strong, and Chinese people are too hardworking. Factories run 24 hours a day," Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday when hosting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Beijing. "Some people think this will cause some new problems in the balance of supply and demand in world production." "We see this problem too," Li said. Bessent also said the Stockholm talks could address Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil. However, Wildau of Teneo said China could demand some U.S. security concessions in exchange, such as a reduced U.S. military presence in East Asia and scaled-back diplomatic support for Taiwan and the Philippines. This would likely face political pushback in Washington. The Stockholm talks will be "geared towards building a trade agreement based around Chinese purchase commitments and pledges of investment in the U.S. in exchange for partial relief from U.S. tariffs and export controls," Wildau said. He doubts there will be a grand deal. Instead, he predicts "a more limited agreement based around fentanyl." "That," he said, "is probably the preferred outcome for China hawks in the Trump administration, who worry that an overeager Trump might offer too much to Xi."
Japan Times
an hour ago
- Japan Times
Nobel committee chair calls for listening to voices of Hibakusha
Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Frydnes delivered a speech at Sophia University in Tokyo on Sunday, highlighting the need to listen to the voices of hibakusha, who survived the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Hibakusha are "not only victims of war" but also "witnesses and teachers," Frydnes, 40, said during the Nobel Peace Prize Conference, hosted by the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which serves as the secretariat of the committee. "You (hibakusha) have turned ashes into testimony and testimony into global awareness. Over time, an international norm took shape ... that stigmatizes the use of nuclear weapons as morally unacceptable. That norm is often referred to as the nuclear taboo," the committee chair noted. "The taboo is fragile, and memory fades. That is why we must listen (to the voices of hibakusha), especially now," he added. As the world is "at the edge of a new, more unstable nuclear age," Frydnes said, "We must return to the truth at the heart of the hibakusha's message." "We know that survivors are aging. Time is precious. That makes the task of preservation (of hibakusha's memories) even more sacred," he also said. Emphasizing the importance of passing on hibakusha's memories, Frydnes called young people the "future custodians" of those memories. Frydnes is visiting Japan after the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, also known as Nihon Hidankyo, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, and before the 80th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, respectively. According to Frydnes, he is the first from the committee to visit the country of a winner of the prize. The Nobel committee chair visited the two atomic-bombed cities earlier this month, laying flowers at the cenotaphs for the victims and interacting with hibakusha. During the conference on Sunday, Nihon Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka, 92, expressed hope that people in the next generation will continue the group's activities.
an hour ago
Researchers from Japan, China Discuss Cooperation
Beijing, July 27 (Jiji Press)--Researchers from Japan and China exchanged opinions on social challenges and bilateral cooperation in a forum held in Beijing on Sunday. The forum for Japanese and Chinese researchers to hold dialogue to enhance friendship as well as human and cultural exchanges took place for the first time in Tokyo last year. Sunday's session, jointly hosted by the Japan-China Friendship Center in Tokyo and a foundation under the Publicity Department at the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, was the second of its kind. It was held some 10 days after a Chinese court handed down a prison sentence to a Japanese worker of Astellas Pharma Inc. of Japan for his espionage activities in China. Participants, including Tomoki Kamo, professor from Japan's Keio University, exchanged opinions on social issues confronting Japan and China, such as declining birthrates and aging populations, and discussed how the two neighboring countries should cooperate. "Academic exchanges between Japan and China are decreasing, a situation that will significantly affect the mutual understanding of Japanese and Chinese people," Yuji Miyamoto, chief of the Japan-China Friendship Center and former Japanese ambassador to China, said, underscoring the importance of dialogue. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
