Reference news network reported on January 11According to Agence France-Presse, Downing Street said that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will sign a “significant” new defense agreement when they meet in London on the 11th.
The two sides will also discuss Japan’s G7 presidency and the need for continued collective support for Ukraine, according to a statement from Sunak’s office.
The new defense agreement, to be signed in London, will allow Britain to station troops in Japan, the report said. London called it the most important defense deal between the two countries in more than a century.
Kishida Fumio left for Europe and North America on the 9th to meet with the G7 allies. In Paris, Kishida and Macron pledged to deepen their relationship.
According to the report, Britain, Italy and Japan said in December 2022 that they would jointly develop a new sixth-generation fighter. The new “Global Combat Air Plan” is scheduled to produce the first batch of fighter jets before 2035, integrating the current costly research results of the three countries into the new sixth-generation aircraft project.
According to the website of the British “Times”, according to the defense agreement to be signed, British soldiers stationed in Japan may face hanging if they are sentenced to death.
British negotiators have failed to persuade the Japanese to grant visiting troops immunity from the death penalty under the terms of the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) that the two leaders will sign at the Tower of London.
The report pointed out that the agreement will be an important element in the increasingly close military relationship between the two countries and part of the UK’s “tilt” strategy towards Asia.
The agreement will set out detailed rules on matters such as immigration procedures and arms shipments. It will also stipulate the legal rights of military personnel and military contractors when they visit Japan for training and joint exercises.
Australia is another country that has reached an RAA agreement with Japan, and it took seven years to negotiate with Japan, mainly because of the Australian government’s opposition to the death penalty.
Ultimately, Australia accepted the same compromise that Britain accepted. Visiting troops who break the law while on duty are dealt with according to their own legal system; those not on duty are subject to the jurisdiction of the Japanese judicial system – meaning a British soldier convicted of murder could face the death penalty . (Compilation/Zhang Lin, Pan Xiaoyan)Return to Sohu to see more
Editor:
Disclaimer: The opinions of this article represent only the author himself. Sohu is an information release platform, and Sohu only provides information storage space services.