UK prime minister Boris Johnson has signed a defensive partnership with Japan, the first deal of its kind between a European country and the island state in East Asia.
It comes after Johnson [pictured, right] welcomed Japanese premier Fumio Kishida [pictured, left] to Downing Street on Thursday, where the two agreed to deepen research and innovation ties, set out joint exercises and pledged to work closer on disaster relief.
Johnson said that both countries would work together on “driving growth, creating highly skilled jobs and ensuring we remain technology superpowers”, in what was Kishida’s first visit to the UK as since his election in October.
The UK government had already outlined an intent to enhance relations with allies in the Indo-Pacific region in its security, defence, development and foreign policy integrated review, published in March.
In the wake of this new Reciprocal Access Agreement in principle, Johnson hinted that it could pave the way for similar agreements to be made with other nations, after he vowed to work with other countries to tackle “autocratic, coercive powers” across the globe.
Johnson said: “We in the UK recognise that our security in Europe is indivisible from the security, our collective security, in the Asia-Pacific, in the Indo-Pacific region.
“There is direct read across from the actions of autocratic, coercive powers in Europe, to what may happen in East Asia. And that's why we want to work more closely together.”
Despite its position in East Asia, Japan is opposed to Moscow's incursion on Ukraine and forms part of the Western alliance supporting Kyiv. Tokyo has imposed its own economic sanctions on Russia, as well as sending non-lethal military aid to Ukrainian forces.
During the meeting, Johnson also reiterated that the UK would stand by Japan and its allies in the Indo-Pacific region, after North Korea recently increased provocation with the launch of another ballistic missile.
On energy matters, both Johnson and Kishida discussed how the new partnership could be used to help bring more allied states away from reliance on Russian energy and fuel sources.
Kishida told UK business leaders ahead of his meeting with the PM that Japan planned to make use of nuclear power to help become more energy independent.
Johnson confirmed during the meeting that he had appointed Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, Greg Clark, to serve as the new trade envoy to Japan in order to further strengthen economic links between the two countries.
The two prime ministers also shared an historic moment as they ate popcorn produced in the Japanese prefecture of Fukushima, a gesture which marked the fact that Great Britain will soon be lifting the last of its restrictions on food products originating from the area.
Fukushima was the site of a major nuclear accident in 2011, after a major earthquake caused a 15-metre tsunami which disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, leading to radiation being released into the surrounding atmosphere.
Image taken from Wikimedia Commons
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