Japan, EU announce security and defense partnership amid rising regional tensions

TOKYO — Japan and the European Union announced a security and defense partnership on Friday as they seek to boost military ties, including joint exercises and exchanges between their defense businesses, amid rising tensions with China, North Korea and Russia.

This is the first security partnership the EU has entered into with an Indo-Pacific country, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters.

“We live in a very dangerous world. We live in a world of growing rivalry, climate disasters and threats of war. And there is only one antidote to this difficult world – partnership between friends,” Borrell said. “This is a historic and very timely step given the situation in both of our regions.”

Borrell is in Tokyo as part of a tour of East Asia that includes South Korea, where he will also hold a strategic dialogue highlighting the EU’s growing engagement with the Indo-Pacific region as China and Russia step up joint military activities and North Korea sends troops to Russia.

Their talks came a day after North Korea test-fired a new type of ballistic missile, believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.

According to the EU statement, Borrell and Iwaya also shared “serious concerns” about Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea, including the stationing of North Korean troops in Russia and arms transfers between the two countries. Both officials reaffirmed their commitment to supporting Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression.

Japan, under a new security strategy adopted in 2022, is rapidly accelerating its military buildup through an alliance with the United States, its only treaty ally, and other partners including Australia, Britain and several European and Indo-Pacific countries. to contain an increasingly assertive China.

Tokyo has also significantly eased its voluntary arms export ban as it seeks to expand its defense industry and play a larger role in the world. Japan, together with the UK and Italy, is developing the next generation fighter jet.

As part of the new partnership, Japan and the EU said that Europe and the Indo-Pacific region are “highly interconnected and interdependent” and agreed to conduct regular dialogue on security and defense at the working level, as well as joint naval exercises, including other countries, according to the joint agreement. statement. They said they would also cooperate on cybersecurity and space defense.

The two sides will consider a possible intelligence-sharing pact, promote defense industry information sharing and cooperate on nuclear disarmament efforts.

Iwaya said Japan-EU relations are stronger than ever and the two sides will “continue to cooperate closely in a wide range of areas, including security.”

Earlier on Friday, Borrell met Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and shared his view that security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region is interconnected as they agreed to deepen defense cooperation, Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Both officials expressed serious concerns about North Korea’s missile program and its growing military cooperation with Russia, saying they pose a major challenge to the international community.

“We reaffirmed the need to strengthen EU-Japan security and defense cooperation, including in the areas of maritime security, cyber and hybrid threats, amid growing regional and global security challenges,” Borrell said on social media X.

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Associated Press video journalist Ayaka McGill contributed to this report.