Japan and UK move to secure energy and mineral supplies amid crises
Sanae Takaichi and Keir Starmer also pledged closer defence and frontier technology cooperation during talks in London.
- Japan and the UK issued a joint declaration to strengthen economic security cooperation, specifically aimed at protecting stable energy and mineral supplies.
- The agreement addresses threats from instability in the Middle East to energy supplies and expresses "grave concerns" over China's export restrictions on critical minerals.
- The partnership includes collaboration in advanced technologies, such as a new research and development agreement between Japan's Rapidus Corp. and the UK Semiconductor Centre.
Japan and the United Kingdom moved to strengthen economic security co-operation on Sunday (14 June), with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her British counterpart, Keir Starmer, issuing a joint declaration aimed at protecting stable energy and mineral supplies amid unrest in the Middle East and China’s growing influence.
The declaration said instability in the Middle East could threaten the global economy and underlined the importance of international co-operation, including oil stockpiling and closer work between oil-producing and oil-consuming countries.
It also pointed to China’s restrictions on rare earth exports, expressing “grave concerns regarding economic coercion and arbitrary export restrictions, including on critical minerals, that destabilise global supply chains and undermine economic security and resilience.”
Takaichi and Starmer separately released a Frontier Technology Partnership document, intended to expand bilateral collaboration in advanced technologies.
During their talks in London, the two leaders agreed to keep advancing the next-generation fighter aircraft being jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy, despite concerns that Britain’s strained public finances could affect the project.
They also agreed to deepen defence industry co-operation.
Takaichi said Japan and Britain had reached the level of “quasi-allies” and that she hoped to raise the bilateral relationship further.
Starmer welcomed the close co-operative ties with Japan.
After the meeting, the leaders attended a business roundtable with Japanese and British company representatives.
Rapidus Corporation, which aims to begin mass production of cutting-edge semiconductors, signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK Semiconductor Centre, a British public body, on research and development co-operation.
The two sides also confirmed that Euro-Atlantic security and Indo-Pacific security are closely linked and inseparable.
They reaffirmed their commitment to stabilising the situations in the Indo-Pacific region, the Middle East and Ukraine.
Before the talks, Takaichi visited Westminster Abbey in central London, where she laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior to honour British soldiers killed in the First World War.
Takaichi arrived in Britain by chartered plane on Saturday, making her first visit to the country since taking office last October.
She travelled on to Italy the following day.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
