Japan promotes cooperation with NATO and aid to Ukraine

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed with NATO to expand cooperation under a new program and promised to the leaders of the military alliance that Japan would commit to strengthen its support for Ukraine, as reported by Kyodo News.

As part of the pledge made at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Kishida said Japan will provide Ukraine with non-lethal equipment, such as a system to detect drones.

“We have to continue to strengthen the cooperation of the international community to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine as soon as possible,” Kishida said in a speech at a NATO session dedicated to the bloc’s cooperation with its Asia-Pacific partners. .

Amid escalating attempts by China and Russia to undermine the current rules-based international order, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared: “The war in Ukraine has global ramifications.”

“Cyber ​​and terrorist threats know no borders. And the authoritarian regimes are getting closer,” said the NATO chief.

Meanwhile, Kishida held a one-on-one meeting with Stoltenberg in the Lithuanian capital, where they adopted a document setting out the main areas of cooperation between the alliance and Japan in the coming years.

Under the so-called Individualized Partnership Program, they agreed to boost cooperation in 16 areas, ranging from maritime security and outer space to cyberspace and disinformation.

The initiative, which covers the next four years until 2026, was approved to broaden the scope of practical cooperation in dealing with new and traditional security challenges.

The number of priority areas for cooperation between them increased from the nine in the previous lower-level document, the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme, revised in 2020.

The new version added areas such as destructive emerging technologies, interoperability and climate change.

“No other partner is closer to NATO than Japan,” Stoltenberg told Kishida, noting that the transatlantic alliance is concerned about China’s “strong military buildup” and North Korea’s missile and nuclear development programs.

Kishida stated that Japan wishes to deepen cooperation with NATO, as both sides share fundamental values ​​and strategic interests, as well as the view that “unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion will not be tolerated, regardless of the place in the world where they are produced.

Kishida and his counterparts from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were invited to take part in discussions with NATO leaders, which wrapped up the two-day summit on Wednesday.

The session with the four countries, known as NATO’s Asia-Pacific Partners or AP4, was also joined by Sweden, which is about to become the bloc’s 32nd member, and the European Union.

Despite the busy schedule, Kishida held a series of bilateral meetings, including with the Lithuanian, South Korean and Swedish leaders. But one that was expected with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not materialize.

Still, Kishida met with him and other leaders of the Group of Seven major democratic economies at an event to launch a framework in which each country will help Ukraine, militarily or financially, in accordance with their respective legal and constitutional constraints.

“We will be with Ukraine as it defends against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes,” the G7 said in a joint statement.

Kishida, who is chairing the group this year, stated: “Looking forward, this declaration will be open to any country that shares the intention to support Ukraine. I hope many countries decide to join.”

US President Joe Biden said they will support Ukraine’s efforts to build “a strong and capable defense on land, sea and in the air.”

Zelenskyy thanked the G7 leaders and other NATO summit participants for guaranteeing additional aid to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy, who earlier participated in the inaugural meeting of the newly created NATO-Ukraine Council, said his delegation is “bringing home an important security victory for… our country, for our people (and) for our children.”

NATO, reinvigorated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has been expanding its geographic reach, and Stoltenberg has repeatedly asserted that the main security problems are no longer regional, but global.

Kishida, who became the first Japanese leader to participate in a NATO summit in June 2022 in Spain, has said since the early days of the war in Ukraine that the security of the Indo-Pacific is indivisible from that of Europe.