NATO chief wants stronger ties with Japan to defend democracy

Of course they need someone in here to effectively meddle in the region

voiceofokinawaToday  03:31 pm JST

One must know that Japan can't join in a military alliance with other nations due to its pacifist constitution, which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. Thus, joining NATO violates the Constitution, let alone signing various defense agreements with the U.S. including the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

I totally agree but Japan has a knack of using vocabulary to circumvent their responsibilities. EG Child custody cases, Refugee status. Helicopter destroyers that can carry the F35C. Japan doesn't have to join to have military exchanges, military training, and have compatibility, share procurement .It is about the security of Japan,and receiving the support of NATO, because they are allowed to defend themselves, but can't help anyone else.

neutral Ukraine as a buffer

Invading the country, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions, flattening cities, wrecking infrastructure. Putin or anyone else who thinks that is the way to encourage neutrality is certifiable.

after seeing its former Eastern Europe satellites join NATO

Maybe Putin should have thought why it was the former satellites preferred NATO to USSR v.2.

Its not excusing the invasion, just seeing some of the reasons why it happened.

The reason the invasion happened is Putin's megalomania, bloated by covid seclusion and the spineless yes-men he surrounded himself with.

Defend "democracy" or defend the geopolitical interest of daddy USA???..

What a pathetic circus..

One must know that Japan can't join in a military alliance with other nations due to its pacifist constitution, which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. Thus, joining NATO violates the Constitution, let alone signing various defense agreements with the U.S. including the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

Saving that photo to celebrate May 8.

The Taiwanese local elections have shown us that Taiwanese do NOT want to be cannon fodder for America and its evil war games.

Please, NATO, go home. Asians don't want to be involved in your wars.

@Peter14

it is no disqualifying issue.

Well, the countries I listed have external disputes.

The only way Japan can join is to resolve all its outstanding disputes; renounce claims on the Kurils and the Liancourt Rocks, and hand over the Diaoyu Islands to the Republic of China as stipulated in Japan's terms of surrender.

But I know Japan can't do it, hence it's all alone except for the US.

Again cynicism drives this kind of thinking.

When you remember the untold millions killed by idealism over the past century, cynicism begins to look like a virtue.

@Samit Basu

That's not possible because such military alliance would require its members to be free of ongoing territorial disputes in order not to drag the entire alliance into war.

NATO has internal border/ territory disputes and it is no disqualifying issue. All members must agree to allow new members to join. UK and Spain dispute over Gibraltar, Turkey and Greece dispute over Cyprus are prime examples.

This seems to be a creeping membership of NATO, which isn't reciprocal. NATO was created as an alliance to defend Europe collectively . So why would NATO "as a group", wish to deepen a military alliance with Japan. I would say this is more about JAPAN wanting to deepen the relationship, without any of the mutual defence responsibility. By all means make relationships with countries, but the alliance is made of many countries who may not want to get involved with Japan. It might be better for Japan to make an alliance with say South Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, NZ and others around the Pacific andSouth China Sea. However, I wouldn't expect Japan to send any military aid to any country if their past and present performance is anything to look at. Maybe some cooks, a few nurses, and doctor or two.But nothing meaningful. Maybe creat a PATO, Pacific Area Treaty Organization. I do believe China will take Taiwan in the future, its just a matter of A) the economic cost to democracies, ( CCP doesnt care about public opinion unless it threatens them) B) Demographics, China has a demographic of single young men, who can't get married, so Nationalism would be a great rallying call. Massive gender imbalance, and a great military resource for the CCP. C) if the CCP feels threatened, then they may try to use their nationalist leanings to rally public support. The past lock downs has given the CCP, great experience in controlling their population.Once TSMC moves production to the USA, then there will be no real need to go in. I hope it doesn't come to that!

NATO chief wants stronger ties with Japan to defend democracy

No he wants stronger ties with Japan to get access to taxpayer funds.

to give to one specific “democracy”.

@Peter14

Many nations will want to protect their supplies of semi-conductors coming from Taiwan so will aid Taiwan in one way or another if it is invaded.

Actually this isn't the case because almost all chips fabbed by TSMC can be fabbed by Samsung, the only exception being AMD's multichip on die modules like AMD CPUs and videocards due to Samsung's weakness in MCM packaging.

In fact, the US military plans to destroy all advanced node TSMC fabs in Taiwan with its own missiles when Taiwan's about to fall to China and airlift TSMC engineers to Arizona TSMC complex to work there.

@UChosePoorly

I am thinking NATO should disband its current format and become a worldwide defensive alliance of liberal democracies with a new name.

That's not possible because such military alliance would require its members to be free of ongoing territorial disputes in order not to drag the entire alliance into war.

That would disqualify Japan, UK, Greece, Turkey, Korea, and India from joining and would end up with fewer members than NATO did. Yes, Mexico and Brazil can join but what's the point.

Well, what is NATO?  Isn't it a military alliance signed by 30 nations, composed mostly of European nations, to stand face to face with communism? 

So, what's it mean that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg comes to Japan and calls on Japan to make an alliance with them? Is he trying to make NATO a global alliance against Russia, China and North Korea? 

To my chagrin, the Cold War keeps going on albeit in a different form from the pre-1991. The nature of the conflict between the East and the West remains the same.

DeanzaZZR, Apologies for underestimating you then. Decent points about Japanese struggles with 'leadership', and I get it too. One things for sure, we shall certainly see.

Watch this space. I think you may be pleasantly surprised. Luckily foreign policy isn't really run by politicians, even if they do like to pretend it is and PM Kishida wont be around for long either. Check out Taro Kono as a successor in wait.

Russia long wanted Ukraine to be a neutral buffer between it and NATO, it had asked for such neutrality guarantees a number of times prior to invading. It doesn't make the invasion right but it is a fact.

And then they decided they wanted it to be a Russian territory, and invaded. As I said:

The cause of the Ukraine war was Putin trying to expand his territory, to push its borders towards NATO.

@Ricky Sorry my world view does not match your own. I first set foot in Taiwan in 1984 and have worked there as well as China and Japan. I have an advanced degree in international relations with a specialty in East Asia/China.

Japan has a hard time formulating a logical, well articulated domestic policy (see Kishida, Suga for recent examples). When has Japan shown leadership (and in what areas) in East or Southeast Asia?

I am thinking NATO should disband its current format and become a worldwide defensive alliance of liberal democracies with a new name. This would also allow a couple of current NATO members a chance to bow out of the alliance if they feel that such an alliance is not for them anymore.

Kick out Turkey, bring in Sweden, Finland and Japan, and change the name from 'Atlantic' to 'Hemisphere'. Don't even need to disband.

War machine needs feeding eh NATO.

Japan is not a North Atlantic state.

Kyushubill - you are correct. I am thinking NATO should disband its current format and become a worldwide defensive alliance of liberal democracies with a new name. This would also allow a couple of current NATO members a chance to bow out of the alliance if they feel that such an alliance is not for them anymore.

The 21st century is not going to belong to autocrats. That would be bad for humanity.

deanzaZZR you are just echoing the same thing I was trying to warn against. Not convincing anyone but those that want an easy to digest, oversimplified and one sided version of the situation. The side that wants to keep Japan ‘ in their place’.

How do you like being told to know your place? Not very much I imagine, so would recommend against do it to others. You underestimate what good they can do, because of ( not in spite of ) their history. Lot of very smart people trying to navigate an incredibly complex and dangerous world, day in day out. Power to those people.

More recently Japan played more of a balancing role focusing on business and the economy and keeping communication channels open to all.

and continues to do so, but will not be swayed by the regional bullies. What Japan did and what Japan does are 2 different things and should be judged accordingly.

@Ricky The last time the Japanese took a leadership role in Asia Japan invaded China, colonized Korea, fought a war with Russia and then thought it was a wise idea to attack the United States. More recently Japan played more of a balancing role focusing on business and the economy and keeping communication channels open to all. Now that Japan is clearly an official junior member of Team USA, Japan's fate will be directly tied to what decisions are made at the White House and in the Pentagon.

NATO = North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Japan is not a North Atlantic state.

China and Taiwan are at opposite ends of the Earth away from North America and Europe. Nato has no business to poke its nose into China and Taiwan half way across the world from Nato.

A short sighted, narrow and incorrect assessment. The interlinking of trade around the globe means things that effect each nation can be on the other side of the planet or right next door. The effect can be terribly disastrous no matter how far away.

Taiwan is independent and the main supplier of the worlds semi conductors, and China makes goods and supply's all countries around the globe so any war is going to have a huge impact on all countries everywhere, even in Europe. It is no wonder NATO has concerns.

Many nations will want to protect their supplies of semi-conductors coming from Taiwan so will aid Taiwan in one way or another if it is invaded.

"Taiwan makes 65% of the world's semiconductors and almost 90% of the advanced chips. By comparison, China produces a little over 5%".

Taiwan and China is purely China's business.

No, it is the worlds business, literally!

Taiwanese are 100% Chinese.

No, they are not. They have roots in the native population and a large ancestry in various people within China, but they are now Taiwanese and most see themselves as such. How China see's them is irrelevant. They also have some immigration from other places around the world that are black people, Caucasian and more.

Make no mistake, the issue of Taiwan is an international issue more now than ever before. NATO is well within its rights to want to protect its trade no matter where in the world it is.

Putin only wants to give Europe cheap energy.

Europe doesn't want it from Russia.

The longer the war goes on, the more the world sources alternate energy sources. Russia is pretty useless on the world stage - the only value they had was in oil, and we're getting that monkey off our back. Russia must be quarantined from humanity.

Basically NATO continuously trying to expand .....which is the cause of the ukraine war.

Huh? The cause of the Ukraine war was Putin trying to expand his territory, to push its borders towards NATO. Remember, Russia is the country that started the war. No one can make another country start a war without invading them, and Russia are the invaders. Remember that.

The West, NATO and Japan should all call a spade a spade, and admit that China is the adversary alongside with Russia the smaller brother of the two.

Nah, China and Russia are only the adversary to America's hegemony.

European will be at the mercy of Putin until eternity

What?! Putin only wants to give Europe cheap energy. The US blew up that possibility, and Europeans just say thank you as they freeze and close down their businesses...

Basically NATO continuously trying to expand .....which is the cause of the ukraine war.

The suggestion that western governments haven't already converged into oligarchies is laughable.

To a cynical mind that can't think objectively, I guess so...

Is the US serving the interests of its people or the wealthy donors who fund the political circus every election cycle?

Again cynicism drives this kind of thinking.

Nobody should be naive enough to buy this democracy war propaganda from Stoltenberg, let alone sacrifice their lives for it.

This kind of "propaganda" as you put it, has directly come about because of Russia and it's allies.

All you people cheering this march to war on, just remember that they'll be coming for you and your kids soon, via a draft.

Eh? Most of us aren't Ukrainian. How would they draft us?

The low resolution thinking chirped like a broken record above that Japan is a mere shill of the United States, and NATO just using Japan for it money etc, is becoming very old and devoid of a sophisticated world view. Just bitterness really.

I hate to tell you guys and many JT readers that lament about life here, ( far from perfect we all know ) but Japan is about to step into a leadership role in the region and the world and personally think this a positive thing. When you actually follow and study geopolitics and foreign policy well you will see this too, they are perfectly suited to play a balancing role.

The stabilizers; the fine print RULES guys. Not sexy, but vitally important,

So do you think Western governments should instead form into authoritarian oligarchies, like Russia?

The suggestion that western governments haven't already converged into oligarchies is laughable. Is Japan a democracy or is it run in the interests of major manufacturing companies? Is the US serving the interests of its people or the wealthy donors who fund the political circus every election cycle? Nobody should be naive enough to buy this democracy war propaganda from Stoltenberg, let alone sacrifice their lives for it.

Great to see Europe and Japan taking a larger role on the world stage. Certain authoritarian countries were banking on the complete opposite and must be dismayed at how more united we have become.

Dean,if the world cared,why is it still happening , nobody has confronted Putin on his own turf,you figure, people see it online,

"North Korea condemned Stoltenberg's visits to South Korea and Japan, "

All the proof needed that it's a good thing.

Since 2013, LDP regime of Japan continues to disrespect democracy, drastic increasing military budget or arms race policy this time have been decided without even deliberation at the Diet.

@ReasonandWisdomNippon

try to sell weapons for a profit.

Korea wouldn't sell weapons to Ukraine, any delivery would be free of charge. Korea never asked money for any of its non-lethal aids like helmet, body armor, winter uniform, combat first aid kit, radio, generators, blankets and MREs, and so on. If weapons were to be delivered, Korea would ship them for free.

Korea only sold weapons to Ukraine's neighbors.

South Korea in it's own backyard it's not doing anything and never joined Quad Alliance to balance China.

Korea won't shed blood to defend the Japanese territorial claims it doesn't recognize, namely the Kurils(Korea accepts it's Russian territory) and Diaoyu Islands(Korea accepts it's China's territory, which China it is unclear). Furthermore Korea can't join Quad as long as Japan claims Liancourt Rocks.

Taiwan emergency is not a South Korea emergency, not a Korean problem.

Indeed, Korea already concluded it won't get involved in Taiwan War, but what about Japan? Will Japan allow the US to launch intervention from Okinawa and get Tokyo bombed with Chinese ballistic missiles, or will Japan stay neutral and preserve Tokyo?

@Yrral bombed into oblivion like all the other towns and villages Russia has destroyed. Real estate agents aren't real keen on Vlad Putin.

Patriotism is the anesthesia of humanity, and democracy is the operating room.

Reasons,the European are not doing a good job, handling their own business,they should not be in Asia business,

Stoltenberg was in South Korea first, he complained to Korea that it's not doing anything, complained about the need for S.Korea to do more, not just watch or try to sell weapons for a profit.

South Korea in it's own backyard it's not doing anything and never joined Quad Alliance to balance China.

Taiwan emergency is not a South Korea emergency, not a Korean problem.

in other words japanese should be ready to fight and die for interests of USA.

answer is NO.go home and return back here as tourist only.warmongers are not welcome here.

Stoltenberg arrived in Japan late Monday from South Korea, where he called for Seoul to provide direct military support to Ukraine to help it fight off the prolonged Russian invasion. So far, Seoul has only provided humanitarian aid and other support, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries in conflict.

NATO chief wants stronger ties with Japan to defend "democracy"...

Democracy is the new code for "business interests of first world countries"...

European will be at the mercy of Putin until eternity

So Stoltenbeg wants to defend democracy, we think he is referring to the multi trillion dollar corporations that control most western governments.

So do you think Western governments should instead form into authoritarian oligarchies, like Russia?

So Stoltenbeg wants to defend democracy, we think he is referring to the multi trillion dollar corporations that control most western governments.

These are prominent White European countries,at war do they think the wider world care ,since the European impose their will on colonies,do they think the wider care

“ NATO chief wants stronger ties with Japan to defend democracy …

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg sharply criticized China on Tuesday for "bullying its neighbors and threatening Taiwan" and stressed the need for Japan and other democracies to work together with the alliance to defend the international order. “

Yes, yes and yes.

NATO chief wants Japans $$$$$$$$ as NATO gets dragged in the war in Ukraine more $$ and assets are needed.

He's standing on quicksand. Japan doesn't belong in NATO.

The West, NATO and Japan should all call a spade a spade, and admit that China is the adversary alongside with Russia the smaller brother of the two.

A formal collective self-defense cooperative approximating a NATO of the pacific should be formally constituted as it is the only way to deter China in the absence of Kinetics.

Selling US weapons as usual...

Hern NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg ought have two things rubbed into his conscience: Japan has nothing to do wth NATO and we still have a peace constitution. NATO is a war machine that bombed civilians populations in Yugoslavia. Japan has not bombed anyone since the end of World War II. Herrn Stolterberg's presence in Japan is not welcomed here.

Mr. NATO Secretary General hasn't learned the art of reading a crowd. Just a hint, people tend to be less bombastic in most parts of Asia.

As Kono Taro said in a recent interview, China has been a neighbor of Japan for 2,000 years and it's not going anywhere.

erik morales:

Japan must protect their own! China CCP government is evil. The Chinese people are nice, but we must keep an eye on the CCP! If you ask ordinary Chinese people 70% of them want to immigrate to another country. But Japan should ban Chinese immigrants because they will take over Japan in 15 years!!!

So, where are your sources for 70%, or the 15 years part?

The Chinese people are nice, and I suppose you like Chinese food too.

The fact is, the vast majority of Chinese people are satisfied with their government. This is from western surveys. From the Harvard Gazette:

In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government

tsumari "buy our guns"

NATO causing enough grief elsewhere in the world. This sort of talk is only going to stoke existing tensions in the region. I cant wait for the US-led world order to end.

Great to hear. NATO alliances are the thing of the future as long as the dictators threaten world peace. Join in on the fun Japan! : - ))

Nato's Stoltenberg is trying to bag Japan into Nato's dithering into the affair of China & Taiwan. China and Taiwan are at opposite ends of the Earth away from North America and Europe. Nato has no business to poke its nose into China and Taiwan half way across the world from Nato. Taiwan and China is purely China's business. Taiwanese are 100% Chinese.

So... Japan be aware and careful not to be caught by Nato's Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg who has travelled across the world to put you into his bag against China : just because Taiwan is Japan's close neighbour, okay?

By 'democracy' do they mean 'oligarchy' because the West is obviously not run in the interest of the average person

It's weird to see someone try to use oligarchy in a story about Russia, and not be referring to Russia, which embodies an oligarchy.

He's quite far away from the North Atlantic. Japan should deal with China in Japan's own interests.

Calling it a "critical moment for NATO and for Japan," Stoltenberg, who is visiting Tokyo, said China and Russia are "leading an authoritarian pushback against international rules-based order."

The comparison with Russia is not completely accurate. China uses it's economic power to "influence" (they would not use the word "bully") the rest of the world. The his maybe unpleasant, but it's not within NATOs remit.

Stoltenberg arrived in Japan late Monday from South Korea, where he called for Seoul to provide direct military support to Ukraine to help it fight off the prolonged Russian invasion.

Thank God Stoltenberg isn't asking Japan to ship weapons to Ukraine, for he knows Japan has no weapons that Ukraine would want.(No, Ukraine doesn't want Type 90 tanks and Type 99 Howitzers) This isn't the case for Korea for whom Zelenskyy has a long shopping list which puts Korea in a dreaded situation.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/30/south-korea-europe-k2-tanks-defense-partnerships-germany/

South Korea Could Sweep Up Europe’s Tank Market

Germany’s self-inflicted wound has left defense partners looking for alternatives.

Japan must protect their own! China CCP government is evil. The Chinese people are nice, but we must keep an eye on the CCP! If you ask ordinary Chinese people 70% of them want to immigrate to another country. But Japan should ban Chinese immigrants because they will take over Japan in 15 years!!!

It is not a critical moment for Japan and Western countries always try to scare Japan into spending more on their wars. Really pathetic

Should read, NATO wants Japan in the coming war!