By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON (AA) – Russia’s “barbaric invasion” of Ukraine marked the end of the post-Cold War era and had “major implications for wider international stability,” the British and Japanese prime ministers said on Thursday.
Boris Johnson hosted his visiting Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida at Downing Street and they discussed “global security and deepening the close bilateral ties,” according to a statement.
The two premiers said security in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions was “indivisible,” and that “democracies around the world needed to stand in unity against authoritarian regimes.”
Johnson condemned during the meeting the “provocation” through a recent ballistic missile launch by North Korea, and said “the UK stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Japan and our Indo-Pacific allies.”
The two leaders also agreed in principle a Reciprocal Access Agreement, which will allow Japanese and British forces to work, exercise and operate together – Japan’s first ever such agreement with a European country.
Johnson said the agreement was yet “another symbol of the deepening relationship between the UK and Japan.”
“On the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS), both leaders agreed the UK and Japan were making significant progress, and the Prime Minister welcomed Prime Minister Kishida’s view that the project could become the cornerstone of the UK-Japan bilateral relationship.”
Johnson welcomed Japanese investment in the UK and the two leaders agreed to “deepen their research and innovation ties to develop cutting edge technologies of the future.”