Defence deal as Japan PM visits

BORIS Johnson will host the Japanese Prime Minister today as the pair prepare a “landmark” new defence agreement.

Fumio Kishida’s first official visit at the invitation of the Government is due to be marked with a guard of honour and an RAF flypast over central London.

Downing Street said the leaders are expected to agree in principle a “landmark” reciprocal access agreement (RAA), which would allow Japanese and British forces to deploy together to carry out training, joint exercises and disaster relief activities.

Mr Johnson said: “As two great island democracies, and the third and fifth largest economies in the world, the UK and Japan are focused on driving growth, creating highly skilled jobs and ensuring we remain technology superpowers.

“The visit of Prime Minister Kishida will accelerate our close defence relationship and build on our trade partnership to boost major infrastructure projects across the country – supporting our levelling up agenda.”

Talks began on deepening the Uk-japan defence relationship in September last year.

Downing Street said the agreement would boost the UK’S commitment to the Indo-pacific and further safeguard global peace and security.

They said it would build on the existing collaboration on defence and security technology between both nations.

It follows the Government’s defence and foreign policy integrated review, published last year, which announced a “tilt” towards the Indo-pacific.