Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, signed a “landmark” defense agreement Wednesday in London that allows both countries to deploy forces on each other’s soil — a move that follows a similar deal with Australia as Tokyo expands its array of security partners across the globe.
The agreement, touted as the most significant defense pact between London and Tokyo in more than a century, will “rapidly accelerate” already growing defense and security cooperation between the two countries amid rising concerns over China’s military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
It will allow both countries’ forces to plan and execute military exercises and deployments on a larger and more complex scale, while also stipulating jurisdiction in the event a service member commits a crime or causes an accident in the other’s country.