LONDON — Britain’s Rishi Sunak will sign a new deal on defense cooperation with Japan when he meets with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida later Thursday, ahead of the G7 summit on Friday.
Dubbed the “Hiroshima Accord” by No. 10 Downing Street, the deal will boost cooperation between the nation’s armed forces and launch a new “semiconductors partnership” to protect chip supply chains — a measure aimed at safeguarding Western supply of the crucial tech from China, which sees semiconductor-rich self-governing island Taiwan as its territory.
Semiconductors are used in everything from iPhones to missiles, but the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the world’s reliance on Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers. The threat of war in Taiwan, home to TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor company, has made Western governments even more desperate to shore up their supply chains.
The U.K. is expected to publish its semiconductor strategy Friday, while the deal with Japan will be unveiled later Thursday after Sunak and Kishida meet in Hiroshima. Sunak is in Japan for Friday’s G7 summit.
“The Hiroshima Accord will see us step up cooperation between our armed forces, grow our economies together and develop our world-leading science and technology expertise,” Sunak said.
In a series of interviews with reporters on the plane to Japan, Prime Minister Sunak rejected calls from his predecessor Liz Truss to fast-track Taiwan into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) trading bloc.
In a speech on the island Wednesday, Truss had called for more action from the West to curb Chinese aggression. She also made the case for Taiwan to be allowed into the CPTPP bloc, a move that would anger Beijing.
Sunak said he was too “busy” to have been across the details of Truss’ speech. However, he said the U.K.’s approach “hasn’t changed.”
“It’s an approach that is completely aligned in substance and in language with all our allies,” Sunak said.
