China News Service, May 6. According to the Kyodo News Agency of Japan, on the 5th local time, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and British Prime Minister Johnson held talks. The two sides focused on the "Reciprocal Access Agreement" on joint training of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the British Army. (RAA), consensus was reached in principle.
According to reports, the move is aimed at simplifying the procedures for bringing weapons into each other's countries, among other things, to make security cooperation easier.
Apart from the Japan-US Status Agreement, only Australia has concluded the same agreement with Japan.
The report said that after Brexit, the United Kingdom expressed in its new diplomatic and security strategy that the center of economics and geopolitics would “tilt” to the Indo-Pacific region.
Japan and the UK will start RAA negotiations in October 2021.
The report also stated that the RAA is an agreement that stipulates in advance the legal status and exemption of taxation and other measures for the members of the Self-Defense Forces and the military who stay in the other country.
After the conclusion of the agreement, there is no need to finalize the rules one by one for each joint training, which has the effect of smooth communication between troops.