The Australian/Korean relationship is interesting but as the article you've posted suggests, don't discount the Japanese?
(See story).
Being on the right side of politics is a blessing but it’s also no accident. What I find most interesting about the Morrison government's approval to select Renascor (RNU) as being one of the first recipients to this round of Export Finance Australia (EFA) support loans, and for a whooping $185m, far exceeding the other recipient’s loan, is what message it sends and to whom exactly?
As the story suggests, securing the production of critical minerals for the global decarbonisation initiatives provides yet another insight into just how central the relatively low-profile EFA has become to dealing with Chinese economic influence. More importantly, it sets a precedence to our strategic partners, namely Korea and Japan (both have MOUs with RNU) that this round of support loans could have been to a number of worthy companies listed on the critical minerals road map but instead they chose RNU. Why?
Aside from China, Japan and Korea have a long held indifferent history. In particular, if this story is anything to go by then this point made by the World Bank is poignant:
‘… the purchasing power parity-based real data suggests that Korea has already passed Japan’s per capita GDP and is pulling away.’Japan is not a country to take a financial downturn lying down. It’s strong patriotic endeavours coupled with its security needs will ensure that it reestablishes itself as a global economic powerhouse. Therefore, it’s quite likely that inciting competition amongst these two rivals which need to work together for the sake of the regions security needs, is a good thing for our nation and potentially our project. As it sharpens their focus it may in fact work to our benefit.
Therefore, don't be surprised if our first binding agreement comes from Japan. It’s simply a matter of them not falling too far behind.
FOMO creates an exciting future!
All IMO, DYOR, GLTAH
(20min delay)