Japan-United Kingdom Relations
Japan-UK Summit Meeting
November 2, 2021
Prime Minister Kishida and Prime Minister Johnson who hold a summit meeting
(Photo: Cabinet Public Affairs Office)
Japan-UK Summit Meeting(Photo: Cabinet Public Affairs Office)
On November 2, commencing at 1:50 p.m. (local time; same day, 10:50 p.m. JST) for approximately 25 minutes, Mr. KISHIDA Fumio, Prime Minister of Japan, who is visiting the United Kingdom to attend the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26), held a summit meeting with the Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. An overview of the meeting is as follows.
- At the beginning, Prime Minister Johnson expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Kishida for attending COP26. Prime Minister Kishida stated that he is determined to lead global decarbonization with Prime Minister Johnson, and that he would like to work closely together toward the success of COP26 and beyond. The two leaders affirmed that they would continue to work together to raise the Japan-UK relationship, which is stronger than ever, to a new stage and robustly advance a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
- Prime Minister Kishida stated he would work toward the achievement of the “National Determined Contribution (NDC)” submitted by Japan and had announced at COP26 that (1) in addition to $60 billion support in public and private finance in the next five years (announced in June), Japan would provide up to $10 billion of additional support in the coming five years; (2) Japan would double adaptation assistance to $14.8 billion in the public and private sectors over five years; and (3) Japan would provide new financial assistance of $240 million for global forestry conservation. He stated that, in order to create a globally decarbonized society, it is necessary to advance a clean energy transition while maximizing the introduction of renewable energy, especially in Asia, and that he would advance the transition from fossil fuels to zero emission thermal power. Prime Minister Johnson welcomed Japan's announcement for support.
- The two leaders welcomed the investment of Japanese companies in the UK and other cooperative ventures between Japanese and British companies, and concurred on further cooperation to strengthen economic relations between the two countries. Prime Minister Kishida also urged the UK to lift its import restrictions on Japanese food products. Prime Minister Johnson responded that he would give the request a positive consideration.