The European Union has decided to negotiate a security and defense partnership agreement with Japan.

Kyodo News reported on this.

The two sides will explore increasing cooperation across wide areas, including maritime security, intelligence sharing, and coping with hybrid attacks.

The move comes after Japan and the EU vowed to “further develop (their) security partnership” in a joint statement following their summit meeting last July.

The European Union and Japan are concerned about China’s growing clout in the East and South China seas.

Calling Japan a “key partner in the Indo-Pacific” region, the document outlined the two sides are “longstanding partners in the field of peace, security, and defense and have significantly developed their relationship in these areas over the past few years.

Among 14 areas the EU listed as being considered for boosting ties with Japan is maritime security, including conducting exercises in an apparent reference to joint drills in the Indo-Pacific region, alongside possible cooperation on strengthening Southeast Asian nations’ maritime security capabilities.

Other areas include responding to cyber threats, protecting critical infrastructure, and coordinating counterterrorism, space security, and defense.

At the end of December, Militarnyi reported on another important political decision of the Japanese government: easing the conditions for arms exports to countries that own licensed products.

According to the adopted amendments, the government allowed the export of weapons to a certain category of countries that have sold Japanese companies the relevant documentation for licensed production.

Among these countries is the United States, which is currently seeking to obtain PAC-2 and PAC-3 missiles from the Japan Ministry of Defense as part of an export agreement.

Exporting missiles of this type to the United States would increase the number of missiles that the United States could transfer to Ukraine. In addition, there is a possibility that Japanese missiles could be transferred for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.