Britain shows Queen Elizabeth’s aircraft carrier to distressed Japan

TOKYO, September 6 (Reuters) – Britain on Monday showed its aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Japanese defense chief at a naval base near Tokyo, marking the start of a permanent military presence in a region trying to make facing the growing power of China.

Japan’s Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi and Japanese military high command were shown around the company, walking among the stealthy F-35B fighters on deck as Royal Navy officers explained how they fired jets from the bow ramp.

“One of the purposes of this deployment is to signal the start of a commitment,” Commodore Steve Moorhouse said at a $ 4.155 billion ship briefing. “The prominence of this region is increasing significantly.”

Japan, which also plans to fly short-takeoff and vertical landing F-35Bs from two converted helicopter carriers, is trying to expand security cooperation beyond its U.S. ally to try to help it reign in the Chinese influence believed to threaten the region, including Taiwan independence.

Japan, in a recent defense strategy paper, identified neighboring China as its main threat to national security and said it has a “sense of crisis” over Taiwan as it intensifies. Chinese military activity on the island.

“The visit of the British carrier strike group is of great importance in maintaining and strengthening a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kishi told reporters after his visit to Queen Elizabeth.

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Japan, a close ally of the United States, hosts the largest concentration of U.S. military forces outside the United States, including the U.S. Navy’s seventh fleet, aircraft, and thousands of marines.

China, which sees Taiwan as a separatist province, says its intentions in the region are peaceful.

At the head of two destroyers, two frigates, a submarine and two support ships, Queen Elizabeth sailed from Britain in May and has sailed waters including the disputed South China Sea, of which China claims 90%. , before arriving in Japan on Saturday. the furthest port from its first deployment.

He has been joined by an American destroyer and a Dutch navy frigate and also carries US F-35Bs, which fly alongside British stealth aircraft.

Following the return of Queen Elizabeth’s carrier strike group, two warships will continue their British presence in the region as London seeks a larger global presence after its exit from the European Union.

While docked in Yokosuka, which is home to the USS Ronald Reagan, Washington’s only deployed carrier, Queen Elizabeth will also host visits from executives of leading Japanese companies, as post-Brexit Britain wants generate trade agreements.

($ 1 = £ 0.7230)

Reports by Tim Kelly; Edited by Andrew Cawthorne

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