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The
agreement followed a meeting among European Commission President
Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa
and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. It comes just as
Tokyo and Washington reached a new trade deal, which places 15%
tariffs on Japanese cars and other goods imported into the U.S.,
down from an initial 25%.
The leaders agreed to launch “competitiveness alliance" aimed at
stepping up trade, economic security and cooperation in
innovation, energy and other areas, according to a joint
statement released by the EU.
The leaders also supported “a stable and predictable rules-based
free and fair economic order,” and reaffirmed the importance of
Japan-EU cooperation to uphold multilateral trading system with
the World Trade Organization at its core, as well as with other
multilateral cooperation efforts.
The EU and Japan also agreed to strengthen defense industry
cooperation and to start talks on an information security
agreement.
Japan and the EU have been stepping up their security and
defense cooperation amid growing global tensions and conflicts,
including Russia’s war on Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East
and increasingly assertive China’s military activity in Asia,
recognizing that challenges in Europe and Indo-Pacific are
inseparable.
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