Japan welcomes increased NATO involvement in Indo-Pacific region
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Wednesday he welcomes the increased involvement of NATO member states in the Indo-Pacific region, where China has become increasingly assertive militarily.
During an extended session of the two-day NATO foreign ministerial meeting in Brussels, Hayashi also pledged to boost Japan’s cooperation with the trans-Atlantic alliance amid an increasingly volatile global security environment, made worse by Ukraine Conflict.
Hayashi said Japan cannot achieve its goal of realizing a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” a term popularized by the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on its own. The concept has been used to raise awareness about Beijing’s growing military and economic clout in the region.
Representatives from South Korea, Australia and New Zealand also participated in the session.
Several NATO member states have been seeking to ramp up defense cooperation with allies in the Asia-Pacific under the assumption the security situations in the two regions are interlinked.
Hayashi said he is willing to lead international efforts to strengthen and uphold a global order based on respect for international law, with Japan serving as this year’s presidency of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.
The G-7 members of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union, have imposed economic sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, while India and China have refrained from doing so.
Hayashi added that Japan and NATO have been working on a revision to their Individually Tailored Partnership Programme, under which cooperation in cyberspace, outer space, disinformation and other domains is expected to be reinforced.
NATO extended the gathering on Wednesday, which began a day after Finland officially became the 31st member of the security alliance, ending the Scandinavian country’s foreign policy tradition of neutrality toward Russia. Finland shares a long border with the country that spans over 1,200 kilometers.
Hayashi, who attended the NATO foreign ministerial meeting for the second straight year, said Japan supports Finland’s accession to the alliance.
