UK, Japan sign defence deal allowing two-way troop deployments as China concerns grow
- Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and Fumio Kishida signed ‘the most significant security agreement between the two countries in more than a century’
- The pact is the latest sign of Tokyo’s efforts to strengthen its alliances to face the challenges posed by Beijing
The agreement is the latest sign of the UK’s growing interest in the Asia-Pacific region, and Tokyo’s efforts to strengthen its alliances to face the challenges posed by China.
The deal creates a legal basis for the deployment of British and Japanese troops on each others’ territory for training and other operations.
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Sunak’s office called it “the most significant defence agreement between the two countries in more than a century”.
“This Reciprocal Access Agreement is hugely significant for both our nations – it cements our commitment to the Indo-Pacific and underlines our joint efforts to bolster economic security,” he said.
Negotiations on the deal began in 2021.
Euan Graham, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, described the deal as “quite a significant step up for both countries in terms of their bilateral defence relationship”.
British ships and aircraft can visit Japan and vice versa, but the process is “diplomatically complicated” and requires foreign ministry clearance each time.
The new agreement will create a “standing framework” instead.
That will make it easier to “bring a destroyer to visit Yokosuka, or to bring in an army group, or to bring in some Royal Marines who want to train with the Japanese amphibious forces,” Graham said.
Japan has a pacifist post-war constitution, which limits its military capacity to ostensibly defensive measures.
Britain has also become increasingly forceful in its approach to China, with Sunak warning in November that Beijing poses a “systemic challenge” to UK values and interests.
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The new “Global Combat Air Programme” is slated to produce its first jets by 2035, merging the three nations’ costly existing research into new aerial war technology, from stealth capacity to hi-tech sensors.
A British patrol ship also last year took part for the first time in “Exercise Keen Sword”, the regular Pacific training operation carried out by the Japanese and US navies.
Signed by 11 Asia-Pacific countries in 2018, the partnership is the region’s biggest free-trade pact.