India and Japan formed their EPA, and decided to expand their Strategic Global Partnership over the next 10 years on 25 Oct 2010.

It's for Free Trade between India and Japan, and Rare-Earth& Rare-Metal issues that are arising due to China's refusal of shipping the materials etc, but it's showing another supporting factor for the above post I made.

Japan and Vietnam (and it's said that Indonesia would also will be involved in at later date) formed a tie to deal with development of materials that replace rare-earth and rare-metal.

[link to www.bilaterals.org] (25/10/2010)

[link to headlines.yahoo.co.jp] (25/10/2010)