The defense chiefs of Japan, Britain and Italy on Tuesday agreed to move forward their joint fighter jet development program, a Japanese minister said, after local media reported last week that the new British government might review the trilateral project.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters in London after talks with his British and Italian counterparts, John Healey and Guido Crosetto, that they also affirmed their countries' establishment of a coordinating body to oversee the program by year-end.
The Global Combat Air Program fighter project aims to develop a next-generation fighter aircraft and start deploying it by 2035.
The gathering came after The Times reported last Friday that the plan "is feared to be at risk of being axed as part of a major defense review" by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government due to concerns over the eventual costs.
Starmer took office on July 5 after his Labour Party won a general election the previous day, ending 14 years of rule by the Conservative Party, whose government agreed on the GCAP in 2022.
On Monday, Starmer said at an airshow in southern England that the GCAP is "an important program" and that the three-way defense ministerial talks would be held "because of the significant benefit here in this country."
Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Starmer agreed to continue promoting collaboration in various fields, including the warplane project, during their talks in Washington on the fringes of a NATO summit, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.
The three nations last held defense ministers talks in December in Tokyo, where the defense chiefs signed a treaty to set up the coordinating body to proceed with the joint fighter development, a key step in implementing the plan.
On Tuesday, Kihara also held separate bilateral meetings with Crosetto and Healey. At the Japan-Britain talks, the two ministers agreed on enabling Japan's Self-Defense Forces to protect British military assets in noncombat situations, Kihara said.
Britain will be the third nation to receive such military asset protection from the SDF, following the United States and Australia.
Japan and European countries have been boosting their ties in recent years, mainly in the security field, amid China's increasing military and economic clout in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.
During his five-day trip to Europe from Monday, Kihara is also set to visit Sweden, where he has said he will discuss with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson about the Scandinavian country's entry into NATO last March after its longtime policy of neutrality.
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