TOKYO (AP) — The defense ministers of Japan, the U.K. and Italy agreed to accelerate the joint development of a next-generation fighter jet, and announced that a trilateral government organization would be established by the end of this year to work with the parties producing the aircraft, Japanese officials said Sunday.
The three countries agreed in 2022 to jointly produce a new combat aircraft that will be ready for deployment in 2035, under the Global Combat Air Program, or GCAP, to strengthen cooperation in the face of growing threats from China, Russia and North Korea.
The next-generation stealth fighter jet would replace Japan’s retiring F-2s that it jointly developed with the U.S., and Eurofighter Typhoons, which were produced in partnership with the U.K, Italy, Spain and Germany.
On Sunday, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, after meeting with his U.K. and Italian counterparts, John Healey and Guido Crosetto, said a joint body called the GCAP International Government Organization, or GIGO, will be set up by the end of this year to oversee the aircraft’s development.
The ministers met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven defense ministers meeting in Naples, Italy.
Several private sector companies, including Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Britain’s BAE Systems PLC and Italy’s Leonardo, are taking part in the project.
GIGO, to be based in the U.K. and headed by a Japanese official, will oversee the aircraft’s development.
“We now see the launch of GIGO and a joint venture on track” toward signing their first contract next year, Nakatani said.
Sunday’s agreement addresses concerns over the progress of the project despite changes of leadership in both Japan and the U.K.
Mitsubishi Heavy and their U.K. and Italian counterparts had a 1/10th model of the joint fighter jet on display at their GCAP booth for the first time in Japan at a major aerospace exhibit in Tokyo last week.
Akira Sugimoto, MHI’s Japan program senior representative for GCAP, said that the joint fighter jet development will be meaningful for Japanese suppliers and for the country’s industrial base.
“Our basic position is to bring our strengths together to develop a high quality fighter jet. I believe Japanese suppliers have outstanding technologies and I do hope as many of them as possible would join (GCAP),” Sugimoto said.
“I think it will also help Japanese suppliers to enhance their capacity to develop equipment and contribute to provide a better outlook and business environment and stability,” he said.
Japan, which is rapidly building up its military, hopes to have greater capability to counter China’s rising assertiveness, and the joint fighter jet project would help strengthen Japan’s mostly domestic and underdeveloped defense industry.
Japan has significantly eased its arms export restrictions to allow foreign sales of the future fighter jet and licensing back of weapons, such as surface-to-air PAC-3 missile interceptors produced in Japan to complement U.S. inventory, which has decreased because of its support for Ukraine.
This story has been corrected to show that the name of one of the retiring jets is Typhoon, not Tempest.
A view of a 1/10 model of a next-generation combat jet Japan to be jointly developed with the UK and Italy for deployment in 2035, on display at a booth of their joint Global Combat Air Program, or GCAP, at the Japan International Aerospace Exhibition, in Tokyo, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)
FILE - A F-2 fighter of Japan Air Self-Defense Force is seen at Tsuiki base, Fukuoka prefecture, southern Japan in March 2010. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prominent American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum urged continued support for Ukraine as she accepted a prestigious German prize on Sunday, arguing that pacifism in the face of aggression is often nothing more than appeasement.
Applebaum made her appeal to an audience in Frankfurt, where she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She was joined by her husband, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who like his wife is a strong voice on the international stage for supporting Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia's brutal invasion.
“If there is even a small chance that military defeat could help end this horrific cult of violence in Russia, just as military defeat once brought an end to the cult of violence in Germany, we should take it,” Applebaum said.
Many Germans have embraced an ethos of pacifism as a result of their nation's aggression under Adolf Hitler during World War II. And many have misgivings now about supplying weapons to Kyiv, fearing Russia and worried that it could cause the war to spread beyond Ukraine's borders to the rest of Europe.
“Some even call for peace by referring solemnly to the ‘lessons of German history,” Applebaum noted, according to a transcript of her speech published by the prize organization.
“As I am here today accepting a peace prize, this seems the right moment to point out that ‘I want peace’ is not always a moral argument," Applebaum said. “This is also the right moment to say that the lesson of German history is not that Germans should be pacifists."
"On the contrary, we have known for nearly a century that a demand for pacifism in the face of an aggressive, advancing dictatorship can simply represent the appeasement and acceptance of that dictatorship.”
She argued that the “real lesson” from German history should be that Germans "have a special responsibility to stand up for freedom and to take risks in doing so.”
The prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($27,185), was awarded in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt — which is considered the birthplace of German parliamentary democracy — at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The prize has been awarded since 1950. It honours individuals who have contributed to turning the idea of peace into reality through literature, science or art. Last year’s prize was awarded to British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie for his perseverance despite enduring decades of threats and violence.
The German news agency dpa reported that Applebaum's strong support for continuing to arm Ukraine triggered some criticism, citing Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, the head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which awards the prize.
Nonetheless she received strong applause for her speech, dpa reported from Frankfurt.
Following pacifism to its logical conclusion, Applebaum argued, would "mean that we should acquiesce to the military conquest of Ukraine, to the cultural destruction of Ukraine, to the construction of concentration camps in Ukraine, to the kidnapping of children in Ukraine.”
Applebaum writes for The Atlantic magazine. She has written books that focus on totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, including “The Gulag," and “The Iron Curtain” and “Red Famine,” about dictator Joseph Stalin's war on Ukraine. She recently published “Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
The prize jury said Applebaum’s analyses of communist and post-communist systems in the Soviet Union and Russia reveal “the mechanisms by which authoritarians grab hold of power and maintain their control.”
The laudation for Applebaum was delivered by the Russian historian Irina Scherbakova, a founding member of the human rights organization Memorial, which is now banned in Russia and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, left, is awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, left, is awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum claps hands with her husband Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski during the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade ceremony for Anne Applebaum at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum gets standing ovations after she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum delivers a speech after she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
Russian Memorial founder Irina Scherbakowa delivers the laudatio for American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum who is awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaumholds a speech afters was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum delivers a speech after she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum arrives with her husband Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski at the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade ceremony for Anne Applebaum at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, left, is awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum delivers a speech after she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
