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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