TOKYO (Kyodo) -- British business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said in a recent interview in Tokyo that there is "exceptional potential for the future" of defense collaboration with Japan as the two countries progress their next-generation fighter jet project with Italy.

Emphasizing that the Global Combat Air Program to develop a fighter by 2035 is a "complex" project, Reynolds said Friday, "I think the potential for...industrial collaboration in a whole range of defense sectors is absolutely evident."

Agreed upon in late 2022, the joint warplane project involves producers including Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Britain's BAE Systems Plc, and Italy's Leonardo S.p.A., with cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and drones expected to be integrated.

For Japan, it is the first joint development of defense equipment with a country other than the United States, its closest security ally. Japan has strictly restricted its defense exports under its postwar pacifist Constitution, but has gradually eased the rules amid an increasingly challenging security environment.

"I see defense and security in particular as being a focus of collaboration between our two countries, with, again, exceptional potential for the future," said Reynolds, who became business and trade secretary last July as part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Cabinet.

Reynolds visited Tokyo last week to attend the inaugural meeting of an economic version of the "two-plus-two" dialogue between Japan and Britain also involving British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto.

During the meeting on Friday, the foreign and economy ministers of the two countries agreed to promote free and open international trade, with concerns mounting over the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats against major trading partners.

Britain had never held such ministerial talks before the meeting with Japan's representatives.

Reynolds said in the interview that it is a "reflection" of the importance of the Britain-Japan relationship, which is the closest for a generation and is "going to get deeper and stronger."

He also said Britain and Japan, which are both members of a trans-Pacific free trade agreement, can be "a force for good together across the whole of the global trading system."