Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Thursday to initiate negotiations on a reciprocal access agreement so the two countries can facilitate closer defense cooperation such as joint exercises and disaster relief operations.Japan has RAAs with Australia and Britain, enabling their defense forces to smoothly access each other's territory for diverse purposes. Additionally, it has agreed with the Philippines to initiate talks for such an accord.Kishida met with Macron as Tokyo has been stepping up efforts to strengthen security relations with like-mi…READ FULL ARTICLE
