泰雷兹CEO日经专访：看好日本防卫市场与雷达/声纳合作，但核心内容为已公布的日本服务中心旧闻

PARIS -- French defense and technology group Thales sees "a lot of potential opportunities to grow" its business in Japan and for partnerships with Japanese companies, as the country expands its defense industry, CEO Patrice Caine told Nikkei at the company's headquarters outside Paris.
Japan has "decided to invest more in defense. So ... the market is becoming bigger and bigger," Caine said.
Areas where Thales could support Japan include radar and sonar, he added.
"The radar domain is really an area of excellence of the group. So maybe in this domain we can help Japan," he said.
Caine called the defense equipment maintenance and support hub the company plans to establish in Japan a milestone in Thales' long-term commitment to the country.
Asked about challenges or concerns in defense industrial cooperation with Japan, given Tokyo lacks formal military alliances with France or other European countries, Caine said, "I don't see any, honestly."
Thales has adopted what it calls a "multi-domestic strategy," under which it establishes production, maintenance and other facilities in the countries where it operates. Caine said this strategy brings countries "elements that would nurture their sovereignty."
More than half of Thales' sales comes from defense-related businesses, which have posted annual growth of more than 10% in recent years.
"The level of investment in defense by countries is highly correlated with geopolitics," Caine said.
"Just by making the assumption this situation will keep being challenging for the next decade, you come naturally to the conclusion that for the next decade, for the coming generation, defense investment will continue to be quite strong," he said.
The Japanese government eased defense export rules in April, allowing the conditional sale of lethal weapons to other countries.
When asked where Japanese defense companies can expand into, Caine said, "Europe is a large market," pointing out that, in some years, "more than 50% of European defense supplies comes from outside Europe."
Caine also discussed lessons and challenges arising from modern warfare, in which drones and artificial intelligence play an increasingly decisive role. Thales' radar and other equipment have been supplied to Ukraine through partner countries following Russia's invasion.
He said low-flying attack drones "are not detected by standard radars," and that his company's products, "which are honestly at the moment the best radars in the world," are sought after by many countries.
Caine called for the creation of an international intergovernmental regulatory framework regarding the use of AI in armed conflict. Drawing a comparison with international systems established to manage nuclear energy, he said it is important "to keep this technology under the control of humans, number one, and for the good, number two."