India and Japan Signed Earths Pact on Rare Earth Minerals

India and Japan signed an Earths Pact on 16 November 2012 that will enable the latter to import the rare Earth minerals from India. These rare minerals are very important for the Tech-savvy industries of Japan. The pact came as a conclusion despite postponement of India-Japan annual summit.
As per the signed pact, Japan will be able to import 4000 tonnes rare Earth minerals for a year from India. By signing the pact, Japan has branched out its supply from China for metals which are used in their industries.
Japan now hopes that the pact will reduce its dependency on China for these rare minerals. It is important to note here that Japan is in tiff on the issue of Senkaku islands with China.
Apart from this, India-Japan also signed a social security pact. These two pacts which were destined to come into force on the now-cancelled Indian PM’s trip were reinforced in Japan.