EU, Japan launch strategic dialogue to boost security, defense

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – The European Union and Japan launched a strategic dialogue on Thursday to boost security and defense.

“We are taking a step forward in our cooperation on security,” European Council President Charles Michel said in a joint news conference with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on the sidelines of the EU-Japan Summit in Brussels.

"We agreed to launch a strategic dialogue that will also include security and defense, and this will boost our cooperation in areas like maritime security or cyber and hybrid threats," he explained.

"The EU agreed to allow the import of products from the Fukushima region," Michel also added.

Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU will increase its engagement in the region, and added: "We know that Indo-Pacific security and European security are indivisible."

The president of the EU Commission highlighted the importance of economic strategy and said: "We share similar dependencies (with Japan). We both need to de-risk our supply chains. So, one of our objectives is to reduce over-reliance on a handful of suppliers – many of them based in China – for products that are vital for our economies – for instance, critical raw materials."

In this context, von der Leyen hailed the Administrative Arrangement on Cooperation in Critical Raw Materials Supply Chains signed last week between the EU Commission and Japan, as well as a memorandum of cooperation on semiconductors signed on July 3.

The Japanese prime minister welcomed the EU's decision to lift import restrictions on Japanese food, which "will provide strong support to the reconstruction of the affected area."

The Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan was badly damaged by the 2011 tsunami, causing the reactor cores to overheat and contaminate water within the plant with highly radioactive material.

Some 55 countries and regions had imposed restrictions on food imports from Japan after the nuclear accident.