[Central News Agency] Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met today at the "Tower of London" castle and formally signed a "mutual access agreement", which will allow the two sides to deploy armed forces on each other's territory.

Both Fumio Kishida and Sunak mentioned that defense and security cooperation between Britain and Japan can help enhance global stability.

Japan holds the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven (G7) this year.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office said Rishi Sunak was very much looking forward to attending the G7 summit scheduled for May in Hiroshima.

He discussed the G7 agenda with Fumio Kishida today; Sunak welcomed Kishida's plan to make the global food and economic security impact of Russia's aggression in Ukraine a priority at the summit.

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A spokesman for the Prime Minister's Office pointed out that Sunak also mentioned the importance for the UK of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Sunak pointed out that innovation and cooperation are necessary conditions for the future economic prosperity and growth of all countries; both he and Fumio Kishida agreed that the economies of both the UK and Japan still have a lot of room for growth.

The UK officially applied to join the CPTPP in February 2021. It is the first non-founder country to apply for this high-standard multilateral free trade agreement since it took effect in 2018. The application process is specific to other economies that intend to join the CPTPP. Indicator meaning.

In December last year, representatives of CPTPP member economies gathered in London for a meeting, but ultimately failed to complete the final stage of negotiations by the end of the year as optimistically assessed.

The UK today officially became the first European country to sign a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Japan.

The Prime Minister's Office said it was the most important defense agreement between Britain and Japan "for more than a century" since the "Anglo-Japanese Alliance" in 1902.

In addition to the security treaty with the United States, another country that has signed an RAA with Japan is Australia, which also belongs to the Indo-Pacific region.

The RAA allows signatories to deploy armed forces to one another, as well as to plan and execute larger and more complex military exercises and deployments.

(Editor: Chen Zhengjian) 1120112