Australia and Japan expand cooperation on AI, supply chains and resilience

Australia and Japan have issued a joint declaration on economic security cooperation, stating that economic and technological resilience are central to national security and setting out a broad agenda for closer bilateral coordination across supply chains, critical technologies, and Indo-Pacific connectivity.

The declaration states that economic resilience is foundational to both countries’ security and that the framework is intended to strengthen strategic autonomy, indispensability, and regional resilience.

Furthermore, the declaration commits the two governments to closer policy alignment through existing bilateral mechanisms and to consultation on economic security contingencies linked to geopolitical tensions, economic coercion, and major market disruptions.

A major focus is on supply chain security in strategically significant sectors. Australia and Japan reaffirmed their partnership on minerals, energy, food, and industrial goods, while expressing concern over economic coercion, harmful overcapacity, and export restrictions, particularly in critical minerals.

The declaration also highlights cooperation on critical minerals projects, domestic smelting and metals processing, and coordination among government-backed finance institutions to support investment and supply chain resilience.

The text also emphasises critical and emerging technologies. Australia and Japan say they will deepen cooperation on research security and integrity, while promoting trusted collaboration between governments, national laboratories, industry, and academia in areas including AI, data centres, quantum, biotechnology, space, undersea cables, and telecommunications. The declaration also links advanced technologies to defence industry cooperation and supply chain collaboration.

In the Indo-Pacific, the two countries say they will work together to foster a safe, secure, and trustworthy AI and digital ecosystem, including through the Hiroshima AI Process and cooperation on digital infrastructure such as telecommunications, undersea cables, data centres, and all-photonics networks. The declaration also commits them to stronger coordination on secure undersea cables, describing them as vital regional infrastructure.

More broadly, Australia and Japan reaffirm support for a rules-based international economic order centred on the World Trade Organization, while also backing further work through the The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Quad, the Asia Zero Emission Community, and other regional initiatives.

The declaration presents economic security cooperation not only as a bilateral priority but as part of a wider effort to strengthen resilience, secure connectivity, and trusted technology governance across the Indo-Pacific.

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