Britain and Japan are set to usher in a “new golden age in defence cooperation”, the UK’s defence minister has said, as London seeks to cement Tokyo as its closest security partner in Asia.
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UK Defence Secretary John Healey made the declaration aboard HMS Prince of Wales on Friday, the Royal Navy’s 65,000-tonne flagship, moored at Tokyo International Cruise Terminal for the two-day Pacific Future Forum.
The visit marked the first time a foreign aircraft carrier had entered Tokyo Bay, lending symbolic weight to the occasion.
“The partnership between the UK and Japan is deeper than ever,” Healey told This Week in Asia, adding that each country saw the other as its “closest security ally” in their respective continents.
“We are together forging a new golden age in defence cooperation … from future fighter jets to joint exercises, from naval cooperation to cyber resilience.”
The arrival of HMS Prince of Wales in Japan at the head of a multinational carrier strike group was the first in a series of them, Healey noted.
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Japanese destroyers had for the first time provided protection for Royal Navy ships and RAF aircraft during manoeuvres; a British F-35 fighter touched down on the deck of the Japanese warship Kaga for the first time and Japanese F-15 jets are due to deploy to the UK in the coming weeks, in yet another first.
