Tokyo (AP) – Japan expressed its interest on Tuesday to participate in the NATO command for its Ukrainian mission based in Germany in what would be a major boost in the links with the largely European alliance.
The Japanese Defense Minister, the Gen Nakatani, announced the interest of his country during the interviews with the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, in Tokyo. After providing the country the country torn apart in war and a defense support, Japan now wishes to join the assistance and training of NATO security for Ukraine, or Nsatu, whose headquarters are in an American base in the German city of Wiesbaden.
Details of the mission, including the possibility of sending members of Japan from self -defense to Wiesbaden, were still to be discussed. But no Japanese cooperation was to involve the fight, in accordance with what was the tradition of Tokyo after the Second World War to limit the role of its soldiers.
Nakatani said Japan wanted to deepen security cooperation with NATO and that participation in the NSATU mission would help Tokyo learn the lessons of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“Japan and NATO face many challenges and our security environment has become more and more serious,” said Nakatani.
Japan said Russia War against Ukraine stresses that security risks in Europe and Asia are inseparable, and Tokyo has sought closer ties with NATO while joining the United States to expand defense ties with other friendly countries in Indo-Pacific.
Rutte told Nakatani that China, North Korea and Russia intensified their military exercises and their cooperation, “undergoing global security and this means what is happening in Euro-Atlantic issues in Indo-Pacific and Vice Versa”.
Japan considers China as a threat to the region and has accelerated its military accumulation in recent years, in particular by preparing to acquire withdrawal capacities with long -range cruise missiles.
The NATO chief also expressed his concerns about the accumulation of weapons and the military exercises of China near Taiwan and called the members of the organization and the friendly countries to work together to keep the seaways free and open in the region.
“China supports Russia’s efforts. China accumulates its armed forces, including its navy, at a rapid rate,” Ratte to journalists said on Tuesday after having briefly embarked by the advanced multifunctional frigate of Japan, Mogami moored in the Japanese naval port of Yokosuka. “We cannot be naive and we must really work together, assess what is going on.”
Rutte said NATO worries Chinese military exercises near Taiwan and “we follow them very closely”.
Rutte told Nakatani that he hoped to deepen the links between NATO and Japan in a range of areas, crisis response operations to cyber-defense, maritime security as well as industrial defense cooperation.
NATO has intensified its links with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, known as the IP4, in recent years, their civil servants attending ministerial meetings and at the top of NATO.
The United States wants NATO members to be more involved in the Indo-Pacific region, Rutte said. He welcomed the recent trip of the US Secretary for Defense Pete Hegseth to Japan to ensure Washington’s commitment to strengthen his alliance with Japan and his presence in the region. He stressed its importance, noting that Japan is the only member of the group of seven who is not in NATO.
Rutte, visiting Japan for the first time since its appearance since the head of the military alliance based in Belgium in October, will meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday.
Ishiba recommended a NATO -type security framework in Asia, although it has not given details.
Countries with common security problems strengthen links as competition degenerates between the United States and China. Beijing criticized NATO’s growing ties with Indo-Pacific partners, fearing that Washington would move to form a NATO type alliance in the region.
