Tokyo and London have signed the Japan-U.K. Reciprocal Access Agreement allowing each country to deploy forces to the other’s territories in a move to counter China’s rising clout in the Indo-Pacific. The U.K. is the first European country, and the second in the world after Australia, to have signed such an agreement with Japan. Britain in early 2021 announced a new integrated foreign, defense and security policy with a ‘tilt’ towards the Indo-Pacific, a region of economic vitality and growing geopolitical rivalry.
