David Eyre Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a business delegation are to visit Perth and the Pilbara region of Western Australia on 9 July 2014.
Mr Abe and the delegation should arrive in Perth aboard a Boeing 747-400 of the Japanese Government.This will be the first visit to WA by a Japanese Prime Minister since 1974.
The business delegation includes executives of Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corporation and the Chairman of the Japan-Australia Business Cooperation Committee. Japan has been an investor and buyer of Australian LNG, iron ore and coal for several decades, and is a key investor in the Browse floating LNG project off WA.
During the visit, the delegation will visit Karratha, accompanied by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and WA Premier Colin Barnett. Whilst in Karratha, they will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first shipment of liquefied natural gas from the North-West Shelf project to Tokyo, and they will inspect Rio Tinto’s driverless iron ore trains which use Japanese technology.
Other talks will focus on defence cooperation and the potential purchase of Japanese-designed submarines to replace the Collins Class fleet.
