EU seeks defense industry ties with Japan, South Korea, says Nikkei By Reuters
(Corrects to remove extraneous ‘the’ in section 4)
TOKYO (Reuters) – The European Union is seeking security and defense industry ties with Japan and South Korea aimed at joint development of military equipment, it reported on Sunday, citing a senior EU commission official.
This will mark the EU’s first security and defense cooperation with Asian nations, a Japanese newspaper said in a report from Brussels that did not identify the official.
The bloc hopes to reach a ministerial-level agreement with Japan by the end of the year, which would help the EU fund joint projects run by Japanese and European companies, Nikkei said.
Representatives of Japan’s foreign ministry and the South Korean and EU delegation in Tokyo could not be reached for comment on the report on Sunday.
Japan, despite a constitution that condemns war, says it is facing “the most difficult and complex security situation since the Second World War”. In recent years it has boosted its defense industry in its biggest post-war military expansion, expressing concern about threats from Asian neighbors China and North Korea.
Tokyo signed an agreement last year to establish a strategic fighter jet development program with Britain and Italy.
This month Japan began talks with the United States on building deeper defense industry cooperation under the US-Japan Forum on Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition and Sustainability, which was established in April by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden.
Japan-US talks so far have focused on repairing warships in Japan that could help free up US yards to build more warships, but cooperation could be extended to aircraft maintenance, missile production and military strengthening.
Tokyo wants to counter China’s growing maritime assertiveness and has expressed concern over any potential instability in the Taiwan Strait.
It has sought deeper defense cooperation with the United States and the Philippines, and last week held a naval exercise with the US, Canada and the Philippines in the South China Sea, where China’s expansive claims clash with those of several other Asian countries.
