Keir starmer, the British Prime Minister, stressed on Monday that Britain's fighter-jet capability is important. However, he did not guarantee that a review of defence policy would not affect its next generation air combat programme with Japan or Italy.

Starmer, at the Farnborough Airshow's opening day on Monday, said: "It is important that I put in writing just how important this programme is."

Last year, Britain, Japan and Italy agreed to establish the Global Combat Air Programme. This international agreement merged their respective next-generation fighter efforts with a goal of introducing new aircraft into service by 2035.

There have been rumours that Starmer's Labour government may downgrade or cancel the program after launching a review of defence, which will be reported next year.

Starmer acknowledged the review but said GCAP (also known as Tempest, in Britain) was making "significant improvements".

He said, "I know the people in this room want to hear that I am saying that it is an important program."

The defence secretary will be holding a meeting at the ministerial level (...) to discuss this, due to its significant benefits in this country.

The multi-billion-pound project is being worked on by the UK's largest defence company BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Leonardo of Italy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan.

Herman Claesen said that the project's managing director, BAE, was "at pace" with the partners to launch international design and development in the next year.

He stated that the progress made on the "industrial construction" to develop the platform is good. He told reporters that the "industrial construct" for developing the platform was progressing well.

In January, the Italian defence minister stated that the programme might be open to other countries at a future stage. Saudi Arabia, for example, could join the project.

Leonardo's GCAP Chief Guglielmo Maviglia stated that expanding the partnership to Saudi Arabia is a matter for both governments.

He said, "What we can tell you is that we're developing a structure that is able to and open to other partners." "Partners matter because the export market, of course, is important for the business case." (Reporting and writing by Paul Sandle, Kylie MacLellan and Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter).