By Takuya Karube,
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed with NATO on Wednesday to expand cooperation under a new program and pledged in front of leaders of the military alliance that Tokyo is committed to reinforcing its support for Ukraine.
As part of the pledge made at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Kishida said Japan will provide Ukraine with nonlethal equipment such as a system for detecting unmanned aircraft.
"We need to further strengthen the international community's cooperation to bring a just and lasting peace to 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 existing rules-based international order, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "The war in Ukraine has global ramifications."
"Terrorist and cyber threats know no borders. And authoritarian regimes are coming closer together," the NATO chief said.
Separately, Kishida held a one-on-one meeting with Stoltenberg in the Lithuanian capital, in which they adopted a document laying out the main areas of cooperation between the alliance and Japan in the years ahead.
Under the so-called Individually Tailored Partnership Program, they agreed to advance cooperation in 16 areas, ranging from maritime security and outer space to cyberspace and disinformation.
The initiative covering the next four years through 2026 was endorsed to widen 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 Program, revised in 2020.
The new version added such areas as destructive emerging technologies, interoperability and climate change.
"No other partner is closer to NATO than Japan," Stoltenberg told Kishida, pointing out that the trans-Atlantic alliance is concerned about China's "heavy military buildup" and North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs.
Kishida said Japan wants 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 where in the world."
Kishida and his counterparts from Australia, New Zealand and South Korea were invited to join discussions with NATO leaders, who concluded the two-day summit on Wednesday.
The session with the four countries, known as NATO's Asia-Pacific partners or the AP4, was also joined by Sweden, which is on course to become the bloc's 32nd member, and the European Union.
Despite the tight schedule, Kishida held a flurry of bilateral meetings, including with the Lithuanian, South Korean and Swedish leaders. But one that was expected to happen with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not materialize.
Still, Kishida met him with other leaders from the Group of Seven major democratic economies at an event to launch a framework in which each country will assist Ukraine, militarily or financially, in accordance with its respective legal and constitutional constraints.
"We will stand with Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression, for as long as it takes," the G-7 said in a joint declaration.
Kishida, who chairs the group this year, said, "Going forward, this declaration will be open to any country that shares the intention to support Ukraine. I hope many countries will choose to join."
U.S. President Joe Biden said they will support Ukraine's efforts to build "a strong, capable defense across land, air and sea."
Zelenskyy thanked the G-7 leaders and others at the NATO summit for guaranteeing additional assistance for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, who took part in the inaugural meeting of the newly formed NATO-Ukraine Council earlier in the day, said his delegation is "bringing home significant security victory for...our country, for our people (and) for our children."
NATO, reinvigorated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has been broadening its geographical reach, with Stoltenberg repeatedly saying that major security issues 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.
Officials involved in preparing the meetings said earlier that the leaders would not discuss the idea of setting up a liaison office in Tokyo to facilitate coordination between NATO and the AP4.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that although the move has been sought by NATO, France and some other countries were opposed to it, airing concerns about the bloc defying its charter by going too far beyond the Euro-Atlantic area and the possibility of fueling further tensions with China.
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Japan, NATO to issue new security cooperation document: PM Kishida
NATO leaders back Ukraine membership, seek closer Indo-Pacific ties
Turkish president relents in standoff over Sweden's NATO accession
