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© KYODOKishida to be 1st Japanese leader to attend NATO summit
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Desert Tortoise
You will find that out when China decides to deny use of the South China Sea to nations who do not do as Beijing tells them to do. It is fear that China really will try to close the SCS to other nations and the amount of European commerce that transits the SCS that has NATO and the EU deploying ships and aircraft to the Pacific. No they would not do it alone but as part of a larger coalition of Pacific powers who are currently outside of NATO. In some future scenarios interoperability, mutual familiarity and direct knowledge of the operating environment by NATO member armed forces may prove to be essential to protecting the maritime rights of nations who do not necessarily border the Pacific. Europe very much has an interest in maritime affairs outside of European waters, as does the US.
Desert Tortoise
Basic team building. Mutual familiarity with NATO leaders. Interoperability with NATO forces using NATO standard methods. NATO familiarity with the region, the bases, the operating environment (especially underwater conditions that matter for submarine and anti-submarine warfare) and the nature of Chinese forces and their tactics. Under the circumstances it seems like a reasonable thing to do.
Desert Tortoise
@OssanAmerica, the US invoked Article 5 of the NATO Charter where an attack on one is an attack on all after 9-11. That was the justification for NATO to fight in Afghanistan. But there was more than NATO involved as Sweden also sent an infantry battalion to fight there under NATO command.
Desert Tortoise
The intervention in Libya was conducted under a UN Resolution to use force to stop the Gadaffi regime from committing crimes against humanity. This came after previous UN sanctions and a UN sponsored no-fly zone failed to stop the barbarities.
kennyG
OK NATO。Kick out UNunited nations. Such a waste
BigP
Does he have a visa, Covid insurance, tour group and downloaded all the Apps?
kurisupisu
OssanAmerica
Japan's use of the JSDF is contrained by Article 9 of their Constitution. Every overseas deployment gets hotly debated in Parliament, compromised and restrained to "non-combat" roles. Anyone who lives in Japan would know this.
Fortunately there is a movement, started under PM Abe to revise Article 9 to give the JSDF recognition and more freedom and leeway in deployment, which today after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, is as urgently needed as Finland and Sweden's application to join NATO. Japan has moved towards collective defense and JSDF can come to the aid of US Forces under attack. Without question this will eventually progress to include other allied nations like Australia, UK and organizations like NATO.
Your attempt to hold Japan responsible for not taking on a combat role in Iraq is ridiculous because Article 9 was forced on Japan after WWII by the Allied victors, which included Britain.
Aly Rustom
I remember that!
With Japanese TV going on and on about how kakkoi and manly the SDF soldiers were. Then they got to Iraq and were pretty much regulated to construction work guarded by the British and OZ soldiers.
OssanAmerica
OK kiddies, NATO is not limited to the Atlantic. Unless you think Afghanistan is in Europe.
"For nearly 20 years, NATO Allies and partner countries had military forces deployed to Afghanistan under a United Nations (UN) Security Council mandate. "
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_8189.htm
"NATO and Japan have been engaged in dialogue and cooperation since initial contacts in the early 1990s"
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_50336.htm
What we are witnesssing is the polarization of Democracies versus Autocracies. And with Russia and China on the same side, regional separation no longer exists.
Abe234
Japan would love all the protection of NATO, but not any of the responsibility. EG boots on the ground, jets in the air, ship out at sea to protect each other collectively. Japan couldn't even get its act together over sending troops to Iraq, and wanted the British to come to their aid, if attacked but couldn't decide if they'd come to the British soldiers aid if reversed.
Strangerland
No. Putin decided he wanted to expand his borders to NATO, and invaded Ukraine in an attempt to do so. Putin has been provoking WWIII. Why is Putin trying to start WWIII by expanding Russian borders towards NATO?
No, the Kremlin is the enemy of the planet. They cheated at the Olympics, they stole the islands from Japan, they trolled the internet, and now they are murdering Ukrainian citizens in their homes. The Kremlin are poison, and only people as stupid as those at Jonestown would throw their lot in with Russia.
Strangerland
A necessity of defense against regional aggressors.
kohakuebisu
NATO is a fundamentally anti-Russia Cold War relic and shares some responsibility for the ongoing destruction of Ukraine, which NATO itself helped provoke and is fuelling as a kind of proxy war. Japan has far more to gain from having a positive relationship with Russia than getting further into bed with its enemies.
venze
Kishida to be 1st Japanese leader to attend NATO summit:
1st Japanese leader to attend?
What has a nation in East Asia got to do with North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
Perhaps it is the chief's instruction..
kennyG
Is it really? What exactly do you mean by "Atlantic"? Ocean? English-speaking?
Wakarimasen
NATO is an anachronism. Like all big bureaucracies, it continually seeks tom expand its power and its mandate. With sometimes significant adverse consequences.
Let's start antagonising Asian countries next.....
dagon
American is fast depleting it’s weapons stocks on the command of Zelensky, and at this time is physically unable to fight China without nukes
No defender of American hegemony but this is patently wrong as regards American conventional forces
The American bases in Japan and in dozens of other nations attest to this.
stormcrow
Asia needs its own form of NATO as a counterbalance to China, so maybe he’ll learn something useful.
Rodney
Kusuda doesn’t understand “change”. The world is no longer run by America. It is now divided in three. American is fast depleting it’s weapons stocks on the command of Zelensky, and at this time is physically unable to fight China without nukes. His, Aso’s and Abe dream to expand Japan to include Josan, China, and the Philippines is like mistaking salt for sugar when you make a cake.
GuruMick
NATO and Libya ....whats that about about "Changing the status quo by force ".
Libya now a failed state.
William77
What does Kishida and Japan have to do with the Atlantic pact,doesn’t he know that his country lies in another ocean?
What a waste of tax payers.
AgentX
I understand the geopolitical nature that "security" (not the military industry complex of course) is a global thing in this era. But didn't Putin want a seat at these meetings some time ago? And was ignored? Might have been a different geopolitical landscape in the present...
David Brent
Kishida trying to make Japan more relevant on the world stage, when in fact outside Japan nobody cares.
Eastman
what for?
TokyoLiving
*Pathetic
TokyoLiving
And what does he plan to go for?, to continue playing the lapdog of the US..
Kishi San, where is your dignity??
Pethetic !!..
Alfie Noakes
"Unless it's by any of our friends," he added, sotto voce.
noriahojanen
By its membership expansion the NATO can become an alternative regime and world order, assuming some critical functions of the UN.
Ironically, the West is actually more progressive moving forward to try to construct a new global regime while the current Russia and China are stuck to the status quo owing to their privilege such as veto powers at the UNSC.
antifun
I thought Japan was represented by the USA already.
Aly Rustom
"Nothing has been decided," Kishida said, when asked about possibility of the face-to-face meeting. "To restore a healthy relationship, it is important to communicate based on Japan's consistent position."
In other words, nothing will change
kurisupisu
Kishida will take his two jets to Spain and stay a day or less and then back to Japan.
All for a meeting whose members have an interest in the security of the geographical area around the Atlantic Ocean!
Where does Kishida think that Japan is located?
What colossal harm is being done to the planet by this blatant disregard for our environment?
In Japan, we are being warned of power cuts in the summer and we are summarily being told to economise.
Another obvious case of blatant hypocrisy again!
‘Don’t do as I do, do as I say !’
shogun36
What does he want? A cookie?
dagon
Kishida said he intends to underscore at the meetings that "any unilateral attempt to change status quo by force is impermissible anywhere in the world."
But what if the 'status quo' was originally implemented by coercion and force and maintains a predatory oligarchy in power?
sakurasuki
NATO is for Atlantic, Japan is in Pacific region. Is this has something to do with internal rivalry, where it needs to show who really have more commitment for Japan security and defense for domestic audience?
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/12/30/national/politics-diplomacy/abe-kishida-rivalry/