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Japan
Asia

Japan and Britain schedule security talks, aiming to counter China in Indo-Pacific

  • The two countries are expected to discuss a plan for Britain to send an aircraft carrier strike group, centred on the warship Queen Elizabeth, to the area
  • Japanese and British ministers will send a ‘clear message’ at the February talks that maintaining a free and open maritime order is vital, sources said

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The 65,000-ton British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth gets an assist from a tugboat into Portsmouth Harbou, southern England. Photo: AFP
Associated Press
Japan and Britain plan a videoconference of their foreign and defence ministers in February to boost security cooperation, amid China’s rising assertiveness in the East and South China seas, sources close to the matter said Monday.

If realised, the ministers will likely agree to work closely on Britain’s plan to dispatch an aircraft carrier strike group, centred on the warship Queen Elizabeth, to the western Pacific for joint naval exercises, the sources said.

They are expected to share concerns about China’s unilateral attempts to change the status quo in those bodies of water and send a “clear message” to the international community that maintaining a free and open maritime order is vital, they said.

The so-called two-plus-two meeting will be attended by Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi and their British counterparts, Dominic Raab and Ben Wallace.

Japan has opposed Chinese vessels’ repeated entries into its territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by China, where they are known as the Diaoyus.

Japan has welcomed the dispatch of the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, the British navy’s largest warship, commissioned in 2017, to the west Pacific, including the East China Sea.

The British strike group is expected to carry out joint exercises with Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and the US military during its stay in the waters.

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