#indo-pacific-security

#indo-pacific-security

Shaimaa Khalil,Tokyo Correspondent and EPA Sir Keir Starmer has invited Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit the UK following talks in Tokyo, saying the relationship between the countries was the "strongest" it has been "in decades". The leaders of UK and Japan said they had discussed their "joint values" and set out plans to strengthen trade and security ties, including boosting defence and partnerships across the Indo-Pacific region.

Vladimir Putin's war has upended security and defence across the continent, and as the European Union and Nato dig in for a fourth year of fighting, senior officials have a message for countries around the globe. Almost everyone who spoke to Guardian Australia during a recent visit agrees: war in Europe has made conflict in the Indo-Pacific more likely and countries including Australia need to be better prepared.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared "a new golden age" on the horizon for the US-Japan alliance. Japan was the second stop for the US president on a tour of Asia that is set to culminate on Thursday in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in South Korea.

Even before President Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, conversations with diplomatic and security officials across Europe and Asia revealed a deep contradiction. On the one hand, U.S. allies fear the breakdown of the international order that has underpinned their stability in recent decades. On the other, they are hesitant to invest in the structural changes needed to adapt to a more uncertain world.