Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will seek to enhance ties with members of NATO during a key summit in Lithuania next week as the defense alliance seeks to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries to counter Russia and keep an eye on China.
(Bloomberg) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will seek to enhance ties with members of NATO during a key summit in Lithuania next week as the defense alliance seeks to deepen cooperation with like-minded countries to counter Russia and keep an eye on China.
Kishida will use the opportunity to stress the need for relations between Japan and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be stronger, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, despite objections from Beijing over western outreach in the region. Kishida will be joined in Vilnius by leaders from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
The visit will show that “security in the Indo-Pacific and Europe is inseparable,” Matsuno told reporters on Friday, adding that it would confirm the “stronger engagement of NATO” in the region.
NATO allies are in discussions about a possible statement with the four Indo-Pacific countries that would set out deeper cooperation and reiterate that security in Europe is interlinked with security in the region, according to a senior European diplomat.
But there are some conceptual disagreements between allies on whether NATO’s focus should stay within the area of responsibilities of the alliance’s supreme commander, which extends from Northern Europe to southern Europe and from the Atlantic coastline to eastern Turkey. Others want NATO to take a broader view on issues affecting the alliance’s security, said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
After naming Beijing as a challenge to the alliance last year, the 31-nation bloc has sought to deepen ties with America’s closest friends in the region. But when plans emerged back in May to open NATO’s first office in Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron took issue before warning that any attempt to enlarge NATO’s ambit would be a “big mistake.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s continued support for Vladimir Putin 16 months since his forces invaded Ukraine has focused European strategies regarding Beijing. NATO condemned China and Russia’s partnership as an affront to the rules-based international order and said that China poses a “systemic challenge” to the alliance.
“What happens in Asia matters for Europe and what happens in Europe matters for Asia,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who recently visited Japan and Korea, said in June.
The stance comes as Washington is seeking to develop various multilateral mechanisms in the Indo-Pacific region, something Beijing says is designed to contain its rise. NATO’s most powerful member in particular has pressed the importance of China’s rise within the alliance.
Those efforts appear to have found some resonance. Kishida paid a visit to Europe earlier this year in a bid to strengthen military ties before the Japanese Air Force participated in the largest deployment exercise in NATO’s history. South Korea’s defense exports — with America’s blessing — more than doubled last year on growing demand in places like eastern Europe.
This year’s NATO summit will have sessions devoted to enhancing partnerships with the four Indo-Pacific nations, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently said in Tokyo. NATO and Japan are reportedly also set to announce the main pillars of a new cooperation that includes an alignment of defense equipment.
–With assistance from Ania Nussbaum.
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