Japan’s first major industrial defense collaboration outside of the United States since World War II has been announced as a plan to combine its fighter jet development projects with those of Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom in a partnership.
In a joint statement released on Friday, the three nations stated that the agreement aims to combine Japan’s F-X program with the UK-led Future Combat Air System project, also known as Tempest, to create an advanced front-line fighter aircraft by 2035.
The name of the partnership will be the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP).
The three leaders of the countries said in the statement, “We are committed to upholding the rules-based, free, and open international order,” which is more important than ever at a time when these principles are contested and threats and aggression are growing.
Read: What is behind the growing militarisation of South Korea?
The agreement comes at a time when China is increasing its military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own, and in the disputed South China Sea, where Beijing has attempted to bolster its expansive claims with military installations on built-up artificial islands.
Upper east Asia is likewise wrestling with North Korea, which has directed a remarkable number of rocket dispatches this year in the midst of worries it might before long test an atomic weapon.
Japan, which has a constitution that favors peace, has already stated that it plans to double its defense spending over the next five years to approximately 2% of GDP.
The project was designed with “our allies and partners at its very heart” and “future interoperability” in the United States, Europe, NATO, and Asia-Pacific, according to the statement.
In the statement, it was stated that “we share an ambition for this aircraft to be the centerpiece of a wider combat air system that will function across multiple domains.”
The agreement between Europe and Japan was also welcomed by the United States, which has pledged to defend all three nations through its membership in NATO and a separate security agreement with Japan.
In a joint statement with Japan’s Ministry of Defense, the US Department of Defense stated, “The United States supports Japan’s security and defense cooperation with like-minded allies and partners, including with the United Kingdom and Italy.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
