Italy wants to consolidate its presence in the Indo-Pacific, where China has been stepping up its maritime activities, and plans to deepen security cooperation with Japan, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a recent interview.

Italy has been dispatching warships and aircraft to Japan, and Tajani told Kyodo News in the written interview that a naval patrol ship is set to call at Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, in September.

Italy has stepped up efforts to support “freedom of navigation” in the Indo-Pacific, including by deploying the aircraft carrier Cavour to Japan in 2024 for the first time.

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In July, Canada joined as an observer in the Global Combat Air Program, a next-generation fighter jet development project pursued by Japan, Italy and Britain. Tajani said he is open to potential new partners such as Germany but stressed that any such participation must not affect the project’s progress or governance.

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Japan’s recently released 2026 Defense White Paper Warns of China’s Expanding Military Reach in the Pacific.

The report, Defense of Japan 2026, again described China as “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” to Japan’s peace and security, repeating language first adopted in Japan’s revised National Security Strategy in 2022. This year’s white paper placed particular emphasis on China’s expanding military activities in the Pacific, highlighting what Tokyo views as Beijing’s growing ability to project military power beyond the so-called First Island Chain and increasingly deeper into the Pacific.

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