As the Japanese Embassy in Berlin reports, an “Agreement between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on the mutual provision of goods and services between the Self-Defense Forces of Japan and the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Germany” was concluded in Tokyo at the beginning of the week . The eleven-page document was signed after four months of negotiations by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and German Ambassador Dr. Clemens von Goetze.
According to Article 1, cooperation is agreed “on the basis of the principle of reciprocity” in the areas of, among other things, exercises and training measures, United Nations peacekeeping operations and evacuations from abroad in emergencies. German Eurofighters and Japanese F2 fighter aircraft for the first time in front of Fujiyama during the Bundeswehr relocation exercise “Rapid Pacific” in September 2022.
Photo: Bundeswehr/Christian Timmig
Even if the People’s Republic of China is not mentioned by name in the bilateral agreement, the armament and the increasingly aggressive behavior of the “Middle Kingdom” in the Indo-Pacific form the background for the intensification of security and defense policy relations between Germany and the partner of values Japan. The diplomatic description for this is that the agreement “actively contributes to international peace and security.”
Such bilateral “Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreements” (ACSA) were originally concluded by the USA with NATO partners and other allies such as Japan and South Korea. The governments in Tokyo and Seoul have adopted this cooperation model to agree on their own ACSAs. After the United States, Japan has also concluded such agreements with Australia, France, Great Britain, India and Canada. Germany is now Nippon’s seventh ACSA partner.
dr. Gerd Portugal