Concerned that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” Japan and the European Union have agreed to launch a defense and security partnership that will lay the ground for closer cooperation in critical areas such as maritime security and tie-ups in the defense industry.
The new partnership was announced Friday in Tokyo by Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell during the first-ever Japan-EU Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue, and is a move that experts say underlines their shared sense of urgency and threat perception amid overlapping concerns over a growing strategic alignment between China, Russia and North Korea.
“As Japan and the EU face an increasingly challenging security environment, the aim is to develop, deepen and strengthen cooperation and dialogue across all areas of security and defense,” Iwaya said prior to the meeting, adding that the move “anticipates greater collaboration in fields such as maritime security, space, cybersecurity and hybrid threats, including foreign information manipulation and interference.”
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