BHP inks battery partnerships with China's BYD and CATL
SHIZUKA TANABE
GUANGZHOU -- BHP Group has signed separate agreements with a unit of electric-vehicle giant BYD and with battery maker CATL to use technologies from the Chinese companies to help decarbonize the Australian resource giant's mineral mines.
BHP is partnering with wholly owned BYD subsidiary FinDreams Battery, which makes batteries for commercial vehicles and energy storage systems. BHP will explore using BYD commercial and light vehicles for transportation at its mines as an alternative to diesel-powered ones.
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Japan Today
3 hours ago
- Japan Today
China pushes back at U.S. demands to stop buying Russian and Iranian oil
FILE - A Russian and Chinese national flag flutter near Tiananmen Gate for the visiting Russia's President Vladimir Putin, in Beijing, May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File) By DIDI TANG U.S. and Chinese officials may be able to settle many of their differences to reach a trade deal and avert punishing tariffs, but they remain far apart on one issue: the U.S. demand that China stop purchasing oil from Iran and Russia. 'China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests,' China's Foreign Ministry posted on X last week following two days of trade negotiations in Stockholm, responding to the U.S. threat of a 100% tariff. 'Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything. China will firmly defend its sovereignty, security and development interests," the ministry said. The response is notable at a time when both Beijing and Washington are signaling optimism and goodwill about reaching a deal to keep commercial ties between the world's two largest economies stable — after climbing down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. It underscores China's confidence in playing hardball when dealing with the Trump administration, especially when trade is linked to its energy and foreign policies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, emerging from the talks, told reporters that when it comes to Russian oil purchases, the "Chinese take their sovereignty very seriously.' 'We don't want to impede on their sovereignty, so they would like to pay a 100% tariff," Bessent said. On Thursday, he called the Chinese 'tough' negotiators, but said China's pushback hasn't stalled the negotiations. 'I believe that we have the makings of a deal,' Bessent told CNBC. Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the consultancy Teneo, said he doubts President Donald Trump would actually deploy the 100% tariff. 'Realizing those threats would derail all the recent progress and probably kill any chance' for Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to announce a trade deal if they should meet this fall, Wildau said. In seeking to restrict oil sales by Russia and Iran, a major source of revenue for both countries, the U.S. wants to reduce the funding available for their militaries, as Moscow pursues its war against Ukraine and Tehran funds militant groups across the Middle East. When Trump unveiled a sweeping plan for tariffs on dozens of countries in April, China was the only country that retaliated. It refused to give in to U.S. pressure. 'If the U.S. is bent on imposing tariffs, China will fight to the end, and this is China's consistent official stance,' said Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. WTO is the acronym for the World Trade Organization. Negotiating tactics aside, China may also suspect that the U.S. won't follow through on its threat, questioning the importance Trump places on countering Russia, Tu said. Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Beijing is unlikely to change its posture when it sees inconsistencies in U.S. foreign policy goals toward Russia and Iran, whereas Beijing's policy support for Moscow is consistent and clear. It's also possible that Beijing may want to use it as another negotiating tool to extract more concessions from Trump, Kennedy said. Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said Beijing now sees itself as 'the one holding the cards in its struggle with Washington." He said Trump has made it clear he wants a 'headline-grabbing deal' with Xi, 'so rejecting a U.S. demand to stop buying oil from Iran or Russia is probably not seen as a deal‑breaker, even if it generates friction and a delay." Continuing to buy oil from Russia preserves Xi's 'strategic solidarity' with Russian President Vladimir Putin and significantly reduces the economic costs for China, Russel said. 'Beijing simply can't afford to walk away from the oil from Russia and Iran," he said. 'It's too important a strategic energy supply, and Beijing is buying it at fire‑sale prices.' A 2024 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that roughly 80% to 90% of the oil exported by Iran went to China. The Chinese economy benefits from the more than 1 million barrels of Iranian oil it imports per day. After the Iranian parliament floated a plan to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in June following U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, China spoke out against closing the critical oil transit route. China also is an important customer for Russia, but is second to India in buying Russian seaborne crude oil exports. In April, Chinese imports of Russian oil rose 20% over the previous month to more than 1.3 million barrels per day, according to the KSE Institute, an analytical center at the Kyiv School of Economics. This past week, Trump said the U.S. will impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India's purchasing of Russian oil. India's Foreign Ministry said Friday its relationship with Russia was 'steady and time-tested." Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and a top policy adviser, said Trump has been clear that it is 'not acceptable' for India to continue financing the Ukraine war by purchasing oil from Russia. 'People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil,' Miller said on Fox News Channel's 'Sunday Morning Futures.' He said the U.S. needs 'to get real about dealing with the financing of this war.' Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, is pushing for sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its financial backers. In April, he introduced a bill that would authorize the president to impose tariffs as high as 500% not only on Russia but on any country that 'knowingly' buys oil, uranium, natural gas, petroleum products or petrochemical products from Russia. "The purpose of this legislation is to break the cycle of China — a communist dictatorship — buying oil below market price from Putin's Russia, which empowers his war machine to kill innocent Ukrainian civilians,' Graham said in a June statement. The bill has 84 co-sponsors in the 100-seat Senate. A corresponding House version has been introduced, also with bipartisan support. Republicans say they stand ready to move on the sanctions legislation if Trump asks them to do so, but the bill is on hold for now. Associated Press writers David McHugh in Frankfurt and Rajesh Roy in New Delhi and researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed to the report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Diplomat
3 hours ago
- The Diplomat
As the US Rethinks AUKUS, Australia and the UK Forge Ahead
While the U.S. reviews AUKUS, amid pessimism about its feasibility, Canberra and London are tightening their strategic partnership. Amid the Trump administration's ongoing review of the AUKUS trilateral security pact, Canberra paid Washington $800 million as the second 2025 installment for submarine capability and capacity development. Australian and British regulators also met in England to update their Memorandum of Cooperation for enhanced information sharing on the nuclear submarine sector. A 50-year bilateral Nuclear-Powered Submarine Partnership and Collaboration Agreement was signed in the same week during the 15th AUKMIN held in Geelong, Australia. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell brushed off the idea that the bilateral treaty would cause annoyance in Washington. 'The message that the Americans will get out of this is that the other two parties to AUKUS are very, very supportive of the continuation of the project,' he argued. Commencement of the Geelong Treaty negotiations was announced at the trilateral AUKUS defense ministerial meeting in September 2024. While focusing on the establishment of strategic and operational frameworks for the delivery of AUKUS' nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs), the treaty signifies London and Canberra's extended commitment to strengthening the resilience of submarine industrial bases across the two nations well beyond the AUKUS timeline, which looks to have eight SSN submarines built in Australia by the 2060s. The treaty also strikes a chord with the U.K.'s Strategic Defense Review published in June, announcing the enhancement of British submarine production with up to 12 SSNs by producing a submarine every 18 months. The renewed defense vision by the British government pays particular attention to Pillar 2 of AUKUS against the backdrop of 'a new era of threat,' underscoring the need to forge closer industrial and technological partnerships with the US for defense capability upgrades. Pillar 1 of AUKUS focuses on developing shipbuilding capacities of the three nations, which includes Australia's acquisition of its first SSNs. Pillar 2 focuses on joint development of eight advanced military capability areas such as autonomy, artificial intelligence (AI), electromagnetic warfare, modelling, and simulation. The United States' Reassessment While Australia and the U.K. push forward, the Pentagon is undertaking a review of the deal. One of the questions under scrutiny is whether the U.S. industrial base can support U.S. naval strategy in today's complex security environment. The current production rate of Virginia-class submarines stands at 1.13 per year – far from the rate of two per year necessary for fulfilling its own defense priorities and the 2.33/year rate necessary to deliver on its AUKUS promises. Under those circumstances, the U.S. commander-in-chief would not be able to sign off on relinquishing SSNs to Australia as scheduled per the AUKUS mandate. To make good on its AUKUS obligations, the U.S. shipbuilding industry is 'going to require a transformational improvement' with a '100 percent' boost in delivery pace, Adm. Daryl Caudle said on July 24, in a Senate hearing to consider his nomination as the next chief of naval operations. He particularly pointed out existing deficiencies of the U.S. Navy's undersea capability. Caudle told the U.S. Senate that 'the delivery pace is not where it needs to be to make good on the Pillar 1 of the AUKUS agreement, which is currently under review by our Defense Department.' Another sticking point for Washington is the commitment to collective defense among U.S. allies in light of the growing flashpoints across the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon review is being led by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, an AUKUS skeptic who has pressed Australia on how it would act in a hypothetical China-U.S. conflict over Taiwan. Using his account on X, Colby also urged allies to step up defense spending, doubling down on the Trump administration's earlier call for Australia to raise defense spending to 3.5 percent of its GDP from 2.33 percent by 2033. However, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Cabinet continue to refrain from making further military and financial commitments. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Colby cast doubts over the United States' AUKUS deliverables during a January 2024 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 'It would be crazy for the United States to give away its single most important asset for a conflict with China over Taiwan when it doesn't have enough already,' he said at the time. 'Money is not the only issue – it's also time, limits on our workforce, etc., so both sides of this vitally important alliance need to look reality in the face.' Despite the new Australia-U.K. treaty and memorandum, Australia's timely down payment, and Pillar 2 partnership envisagement, these reassuring moves did not allay the concerns that have Colby and the Pentagon rethinking AUKUS. China's Reactions Although there was no public mention of AUKUS being on the agenda in the meeting between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and China's President Xi Jinping in July, China is seen making more subtle moves to counter the trilateral defense partnership in the region. While Albanese was in Chengdu as part of his second official visit to China as prime minister, China's Consul General in Sydney Wang Yu caught Newcastle Mayor Ross Kerridge by surprise on July 17, with a question on potential docking locations for AUKUS submarines. Australian federal government officials and senators have voiced concerns regarding national security being brought to city-level closed-door meet-and-greets. On the sidelines of the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in July, China shared its intention to accede to ASEAN's Protocol to the Southeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty. The treaty commits state parties not to develop, acquire, and station nuclear weapons. China emphasized in its announcement that the region is 'not an arena for major power rivalry.' The 10 ASEAN nations have been calling on the five nuclear weapon states – including both the U.S. and the U.K. – to ratify the treaty since 1997, and China expressed support as early as 1999. However, Beijing's latest confirmation that it will sign the treaty, after more than two decades of intent, could not only reinforce China's good neighborhood image without additional tangible commitments but also add to its toolbelt for discrediting nuclear-powered military partnerships in the region. A French (Re)involvement? As the Pentagon's AUKUS review prolongs, recent activities suggest France might be a keen onlooker of the development. Under the Lancaster House 2.0 and Northwood Declaration unveiled during French President Emmanuel Macron's recent state visit to the United Kingdom in July, nuclear coordination and cooperation were deepened between the two European nuclear powers. Their enhanced nuclear research, intelligence exchange, and overall defense capability could indirectly complement Pillar 2 of AUKUS – even without France joining. Additionally, France and the U.K. also agreed to strengthen maritime coordination in the Indo-Pacific through joint security training, reciprocal base access, and the launch of a new Global Maritime Security Dialogue. The renewed interest by the French government recognizes its shared responsibility in the region, given that more than 90 percent of France's Exclusive Economic Zone is in the Indo-Pacific. Subsequently, the French government revamped its Indo-Pacific strategy as a priority in July with an emphasis on strategic autonomy and sovereignty partnerships. Most prominently, Australia is now back on the list of 'priority strategic partners' after being taken out from France's 2022 strategy after AUKUS was formed. The new SSN partnership left France blindsided, as it also brought the cancellation of an Australia-France contract for diesel-electric submarines. Rebuilding Australia-France ties from that 'unprecedented new low' has been prioritized by the Albanese administration from the beginning. A $585 million settlement to the French Naval Group was agreed to less than a month after Albanese took office in July 2022, and a three-pillar roadmap was laid out soon after for their New Agenda for Bilateral Cooperation. French Ambassador Pierre-André Imbert did not rule out a future submarine deal with Australia as the French armed Forces joined the 19-nation military drill in Australian waters and Papua New Guinea in July. Australia has 'chosen AUKUS… If that changes – if they ask, we will see,' he said. 'The first pillar of our Cooperation is Defense and Security, so we have a very good level of cooperation.' Speculation and public anxiety continue to sprout with the Pentagon review expected to be concluded in the fall. In the meantime, calls for an Australian inquiry into the nation's largest-ever defense project are simmering. With high-profile figures like former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull expressing opposition to the deal. The path for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines is likely to remain rocky, with the question at hand not being whether AUKUS should continue, but how. Calls for contingencies and deliverable assurances are rising as the pact comes under scrutiny.
The Mainichi
2 days ago
- The Mainichi
N. Korea's Kim orders freight station construction near China border
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the construction of a freight station near the Chinese border to support a large-scale greenhouse farm project in the northwest, state-run media reported Saturday. Coming at a time when North Korea has been bolstering military and economic ties with Russia, particularly since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, observers are watching whether the move could lead to an uptick in trade with its traditional ally China, which has recently been sluggish. Kim visited the region around Sinuiju on Friday, where severe flooding occurred in July 2024 after the Yalu River, which runs along the border with China, overflowed, according to the Korean Central News Agency. While inspecting embankment and farm construction, Kim called for the creation of a "comprehensive transport center" with a new vegetable storehouse and processing facilities built around it, the official news agency said. The area around the Yalu River has long been prone to flooding during heavy rains, with widespread damage reported last year. But with residential buildings reportedly swiftly rebuilt, Kim was quoted as saying such flood damage, once seen as inevitable, has "became a past story." Beijing is viewed as Pyongyang's closest and most influential ally in economic terms. But China's trade with North Korea in 2024 fell 5 percent from the previous year to about $2 billion, official data showed earlier this year, as bilateral trade lost momentum despite Beijing and Pyongyang marking the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
