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In their first-ever trilateral military initiative, the UK, Japan, and Italy have decided to work together to develop one of the most cutting-edge fighter jets by 2035 in order to improve their defense capabilities and counter growing security threats from China and Russia.

The Franco-German-Spanish project, which is competing with the Global Combat Air Programme and has been beset by political and business disputes amongst the partners, is being built at the same time as the GCAP.

According to the agreement reached on Friday, Japan's F-X project and the UK's Future Combat Air program, known as Tempest, would be combined. The expected tens of billions of dollars in development expenditures would be split among the three countries, however the precise amount will depend on a combined analysis of costs and national budgets.

The three leaders of the countries said in a joint statement that they were "sharing the expenses and benefits of this investment in our people and technologies by working together in a spirit of equal collaboration." A crucial aspect of the program is that it will support the sovereign ability of all three nations to build, deliver, and upgrade state-of-the-art combat air capabilities for years to come.

The agreement, the result of years of negotiations, represents a historic turn for Japan. To prepare for the prospect of a confrontation with China over Taiwan, it has sought closer security connections with a variety of allies while historically only working with US partners for large military weapons.

With Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announcing this week that the government intends to set up 43tn ($315bn) for its five-year defense budget, a 57% increase from the previous time, the fighter jet is also a part of Japan's expanding defense goals.