Japan and NATO to level up cooperation with eye on China, Russia

 

While Japan is not a formal member of the 31-nation collective defense alliance, it is a "global partner." The Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program signed by Tokyo and NATO in 2014 has focused on certain specific areas, such as maritime security and humanitarian assistance, but cooperation between their armed forces is largely outside its scope.

 

The plan is to draw up an Individually Tailored Partnership Program that essentially upgrades this arrangement, Nikkei reports.

 

Work is underway to have it ready to release at the NATO summit in Lithuania in July.

 

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been invited to the meeting, where he would set out Japan's position on

supporting Ukraine. NATO is expected to confirm plans to open its first East Asian liaison office in Tokyo in 2024.

Kishida participated in last June's summit in Madrid, a first for a Japanese leader.

 

The revamped partnership will look to keep the two sides on the same page regarding Russia and China. Recent policy documents show little daylight between their stances, calling the former a "threat" and the latter a "challenge" to the international order.

 

The agreement will also note the cyber and space domains -- areas of focus for both Beijing and Moscow -- as fields for closer cooperation.