Japan’s Takaichi hosts first summit with Central Asia leaders

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hosted an inaugural summit on Friday with five Central Asia leaders, as Tokyo competes for influence in the resource-rich region.

Takaichi is meeting with counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan during a two-day conference in Tokyo, a month after US President Donald Trump hosted all five in Washington.

The Central Asian leaders also held separate summits with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen this year.

Like the United States and the European Union, Japan is drawn by the region’s enormous — but still mostly unexploited — natural resources in a push to diversify rare earths supplies and reduce dependence on Beijing.

With Tokyo trailing its rivals, the summit is important for Japan to increase its presence, said Tomohiko Uyama, a professor at Hokkaido University specializing in Central Asian politics.

“Natural resources have become a strong focus particularly in the past year because of China’s moves involving rare earths,” Uyama told AFP, referencing tight export controls introduced this year by Beijing.

During the summit, Takaichi and the five leaders are expected to establish an “AI partnership” framework, aiming to use technology to explore mineral deposits in undeveloped mines, the Nikkei Asia business daily said.