NATO Secretary-General - "No other partner is closer to NATO than Japan."

  

NATO and Japan to cooperate in 16 areas

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- "No other partner is closer to NATO than Japan." So said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg when he met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Wednesday morning.
 
Stoltenberg and Kishida see geopolitical interconnectivities in similar ways. The Japanese leader's signature line is: "Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow." The NATO chief says, "Security is not regional but global."
 
Their plan to establish a NATO liaison office in Tokyo was thwarted by French President Emmanuel Macron, whose government has openly opposed the move and succeeded in scrubbing language regarding the office from the summit communique.
 
But Japan and NATO announced a new document Wednesday that lays out 16 areas of cooperation, including teaming up to evacuate citizens from third countries in times of crisis.
 
With Stoltenberg's term recently extended, he and Kishida will have more chances to regroup and continue efforts to open a Tokyo office.