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UK, Italy, Japan to Develop Next-generation Fighter Jet

Delegates look at the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) 6th generation fighter jet concept design at the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 - AFP
Delegates look at the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) 6th generation fighter jet concept design at the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 - AFP
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UK, Italy, Japan to Develop Next-generation Fighter Jet

Delegates look at the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) 6th generation fighter jet concept design at the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 - AFP
Delegates look at the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) 6th generation fighter jet concept design at the Farnborough International Airshow 2024 - AFP

The UK, Italy and Japan on Friday launched a joint venture to develop a supersonic next-generation fighter jet by 2035, replacing the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Britain's BAE Systems, Italy's Leonardo and Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co Ltd (JAIEC) will each hold a 33.3 percent share in the new venture, "marking a pivotal moment for the international aerospace and defence industry," they announced in a press release, AFP reported.

JAIEC is a firm jointly funded by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies.

"Today's agreement is a culmination of many months working together with our industry partners and is testament to the hard work of everyone involved in this strategically important program," said Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems Chief Executive.

The venture will "bring together the significant strengths and expertise of the companies involved to create an innovative organisation that will lead the way in developing a next generation combat air system, creating long-term, high value and skilled jobs across the partner nations for decades to come," he added.

The three partners have agreed to form a new company under the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP), a multinational initiative established by the UK, Japan and Italy in 2022 to develop a sixth-generation stealth fighter to replace the Typhoon and Japanese F-2.

The joint venture is expected to be established by the middle of 2025 and will undertake the design and development of the GCAP aircraft.

It will subcontract the manufacturing and final assembly of the aircraft to BAE Systems, Leonardo, MHI and the wider supply chain.

The aircraft is due to enter service in 2035, ahead of the competing European project FCAS -- led by Paris, Berlin and Madrid -- and is expected to be in service until 2070.

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World

Italian PM Condemns ‘Unacceptable’ Trump Criticism of Pope

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gestures in the Senate chamber during the briefing to Parliament on the government's activities in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2026. (EPA)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gestures in the Senate chamber during the briefing to Parliament on the government's activities in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2026. (EPA)
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Italian PM Condemns ‘Unacceptable’ Trump Criticism of Pope

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gestures in the Senate chamber during the briefing to Parliament on the government's activities in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2026. (EPA)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gestures in the Senate chamber during the briefing to Parliament on the government's activities in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2026. (EPA)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday condemned US President Donald Trump's criticism of Pope Leo XIV as "unacceptable", after the US pontiff spoke out against the Middle East war.

"The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for him to call for peace and to condemn all forms of war," she said in a statement.

It represents a rare rebuke of Trump by Meloni, a far-right leader who has sought to be a bridge between the conservative US president and European leaders.

Meloni earlier put out a statement supporting Pope Leo's efforts at peace and reconciliation in a trip to Africa, which began Monday, just hours after Trump launched a scathing criticism of the first US pontiff.

"I thought the meaning of my statement this morning was clear, but I will restate it more explicitly. I find President Trump's words about the Holy Father unacceptable," she said.

Speaking to reporters late Sunday, Trump said he was "not a big fan of Pope Leo", accusing the pontiff of "toying with a country (Iran) that wants a nuclear weapon".

The president later doubled down on his comments with a post on Truth Social, saying: "I don't want a Pope who thinks it's OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon."

"Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," he said.

His comments drew outrage from many Italian politicians, while Catholic bishops from the United States and Italy were quick to defend the pontiff.

Leo himself told reporters on the plane to Algeria -- the first stop on a four-nation tour that also takes in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea -- that he had a "moral duty" to speak out against war.

"I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration, nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel," he said.

World

Middle East Ceasefire a ‘Priority’, China’s FM Tells Pakistan

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi waves after a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, March 8, 2026. (Reuters)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi waves after a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, March 8, 2026. (Reuters)
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Middle East Ceasefire a ‘Priority’, China’s FM Tells Pakistan

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi waves after a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, March 8, 2026. (Reuters)
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi waves after a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing, China, March 8, 2026. (Reuters)

Maintaining a ceasefire in the Middle East war is an "immediate priority" for resolving the conflict, China's top diplomat told his Pakistan counterpart in a phone call on Monday.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also said on Monday that the ceasefire between the United States and Iran was "holding" and that efforts were underway to reach an agreement after talks in Islamabad at the weekend failed to do so.

"The immediate priority is to make every effort toward preventing the resumption of hostilities and to maintain the hard-won ceasefire momentum," Wang Yi told Pakistan's Ishaq Dar, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Wang said a joint peace plan by China and Pakistan announced last month as the two officials met in Beijing "still can serve as a direction for efforts toward a resolution".

World

UN Maritime Chief Says No Country Has Right to Close Hormuz

FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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UN Maritime Chief Says No Country Has Right to Close Hormuz

FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

The head of the UN maritime agency said Monday no country had a legal right to block shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a trade passage paralysed by the US-Iran war.

The International Maritime Organization's Secretary General Arsenio Dominguez addressed a news conference as access to the strait remained blocked six weeks after the war erupted with US and Israeli strikes against Iran.

The United States had threatened to begin a blockade on Monday of Iranian ports in and around the strait, which Tehran's forces have been controlling access to since after the war broke out on February 28.

"In accordance to international law, no countries have the right to prohibit the right of innocent passage or the freedom of navigation through international straits that are used for international transit," Dominguez said.

Iranian authorities have been allowing a trickle of vetted vessels to pass the strait through a route close to their coast and in some cases have reportedly levied a payment to let vessels through.

"This principle of introducing a toll on an international strait for international navigation is against the international law of the sea and the customary law," Dominguez said.

"It will create a very dangerous precedent."

The US vow to blockade Iranian ports meanwhile "doesn't make it any easier", he added.

"De-escalation is what is going to start helping us to address the crisis and to bring shipping back to the way that we used to operate."

He predicted that the extra impact of a US blockade on shipping would be negligible, however.

"With the very few number of ships that have managed to transit, an additional blockade is not going to exacerbate the situation in a level that it could be perceived."