Britain’s May attends top security meeting in Japan

TIL Desk/World/Tokyo/ British Prime Minister Theresa May attended Japan’s top security meeting today, as the two countries vowed to work together to confront nuclear-armed North Korea over its firing of a missile over the Asian nation.

May, who is in Japan on an official visit, is reportedly only the second foreign leader to attend a meeting of the National Security Council after Australia’s then-prime minister Tony Abbott in 2014. The Council, which was created at the end of 2013, consists of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and key ministers.

“Just two days ago, North Korea again went ahead with a reckless act of firing missiles, this time over Japan, and I do hope Japan and the United Kingdom can work together to deal with the threat” from Pyongyang, Abe said at the start of the meeting.

“With the participation of Theresa, I will look forward to having a discussion on the way forward of how we can strongly and aggressively advance our security cooperation,” he added. May described Japan as “the UK’s closest security partner in Asia” and a “like-minded partner”.