UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt announced the installation of a hotline linking his office with counterparts in the Japanese government in a wide ranging speech on foreign policy (link) delivered at PolicyExchangeUK on 31 Oct 2018.

Jeremy Hunt explained that his office has for a long time had secure phone connections to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This reflects the famous “five eyes” intelligence family descended from the 1940s era. Is this a prelude to Japan being invited into the five eyes family, as recently suggested in an article in the Nikkei?

As an indication of how he sees Britain’s diplomacy developing in the post-Brexit era, Hunt announced that to “allow for the strengthening of important alliances”,  a secure phone connection with Japan has been installed.

A connection was also added to counterparts in France and Germany.

The speech placed this move in the context of a post-Brexit global Britain foreign policy that consists of:

“..adding links to the chain that will allow us to play our part in linking the countries that share our values.”