On 10 - 11 January 2024, the 8th edition of the Military to Military Talks between Italy and Japan.
The delegations were led, on the Italian side, by the deputy head of the international cooperation area department, Brigadier General Alessandro Grassano while, on the Japanese side, by Mr. Jun Miura, director general for international affairs at the Japanese Ministry of Defence.
During the meeting, held in an atmosphere of open and constructive discussion, the excellent level of existing relations between the two Defenses was reiterated and the fruitful collaboration underway between Italy and Japan and the desire to increase further cooperation in the defense sector.
In this regard, future areas of cooperation were identified, also including training offers in Italy and the mutual vision of the areas of strategic interest was presented, with specific focus on the importance of bilateral relations between the two countries in the context of the processes to guarantee defense and security in the wider Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific areas.
At the end of the meeting the Cooperation Plan for 2024 which includes a total of 28 activities, of which 11 in Italy and 17 in Japan.
The talks made it possible to confirm the strategic importance that Japan has today for maintaining balances in the Indo-Pacific area.
In particular, both sides reiterated their mutual interest in increasing efforts to expand bilateral relations between the two countries, evaluating possible further future initiatives also within the framework of procurement, in addition to the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), an international collaboration program involving Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan with the shared objective of developing a new generation aircraft system by 2035.
