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DUBAI: Japan, the UK and Italy are open to having �������� join their next-generation fighter-jet initiative, but only once the project has reached a more advanced stage and key issues have been resolved, according to The Japan Times.

The Global Combat Air Program is a joint effort to develop a sixth-generation fighter.

It will likely remain a trilateral initiative until after the GCAP International Government Organization, or GIGO, and the industry-led joint venture Edgewing sign their first international contract, likely by the end of 2025, the newspaper reported recently.

The GIGO, officially inaugurated on Monday in Reading, England, was established last year to oversee government-level coordination for the program.

Edgewing, launched last month, brings together the UK’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Leonardo, and the Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co., and is responsible for designing and developing the aircraft.

“There is no preclusion in having �������� join the program, but we first have to define certain criteria and clarify all the points,” one source told The Japan Times, speaking after a virtual meeting between the GCAP nations’ defense ministers on Monday.

Riyadh has been “encouraged” to build up its aerospace expertise — including potentially acquiring and assembling Eurofighter Typhoons — before entering the GCAP, the newspaper reported.

In addition to ��������, several other countries are said to have expressed interest in joining the program. These include two unnamed European countries, as well as one Middle Eastern and one Asian nation, according to a source cited by The Japan Times.

The terms of participation and contributions of any future member states remain undefined. Any expansion of the program would require unanimous approval from Japan, the UK and Italy.

The GCAP aircraft will be Japan’s first major defense development with partners other than the US.

It is intended to replace the aging F-2 fighter jets used by Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, as well as the Eurofighters operated by the UK and Italy. The new jets are scheduled to enter service by 2035.

With the conceptual design phase complete, the program is moving into detailed design and development, and a demonstrator flight is expected within two to three years.

Despite overall satisfaction with the program’s progress, some tensions remain, particularly around access to sensitive intellectual property and full technology sharing.

In April, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto publicly criticized the UK for not fully disclosing technology to its partners, in an interview with Reuters.

It is a concern that The Japan Times understands is still unresolved.

LONDON: Years of American-led investment into AIDS programs has reduced the number of people killed by the disease to the lowest levels seen in more than three decades, and provided life-saving medicines for some of the world’s most vulnerable.
But in the last six months, the sudden withdrawal of US money has caused a “systemic shock,” UN officials warned, adding that if the funding isn’t replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.
“The current wave of funding losses has already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities,” UNAIDS said in a report released Thursday.
UNAIDS also said that it feared other major donors might also scale back their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS worldwide — and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.
The $4 billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January when US President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the US AID agency.
Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool who is not connected to the United Nations, said that while Trump is entitled to spend US money as he sees fit, “any responsible government would have given advance warning so countries could plan,” instead of stranding patients in Africa when clinics were closed overnight.
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by US President George W. Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.
UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9 percent of the country’s budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.
In 2024, there were about 630,000 AIDS-related deaths worldwide, per a UNAIDS estimate — the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after peaking at about 2 million deaths in 2004.
Even before the US funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa and that more than 50 percent of all people who need treatment but aren’t getting it are in Africa and Asia.
Tom Ellman, of the charity Doctors Without Borders, said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the US
“There’s nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the US,” said Ellman, director of Doctors Without Borders’ South Africa Medical Unit. “Within months of losing treatment, people will start to get very sick and we risk seeing a massive rise in infection and death.”
Experts also fear another loss: data. The US paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.
“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.
The uncertainty comes as a twice-yearly injectable could end HIV, as studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100 percent effective in preventing the virus.
Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Sunleca — a move that should have been a “threshold moment” for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead’s pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.
“We could be ending AIDS,” Maybarduk said. “Instead, the US is abandoning the fight.”