Japan's defense minister wants Washington to “unite” its network of informal alliances in Asia into a formal military bloc
A senior US State Department official has said that it is “too soon” to discuss building a NATO-style bloc in Asia, after Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba called on Washington to discuss the matter in more depth.
Ishiba, who is a leading candidate to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, last week called for the creation of a “The Asian version of NATO” by “uniting” their various security arrangements in the region into a formal defense pact. “We should at least deepen our discussions on this topic,” said.
Speaking at a conference in Washington, DC on Tuesday, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Kritenbrink rejected Ishiba's suggestion.
“It is too early to talk about collective security in that context and (the creation of) more formal institutions,” According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Kritenbrink said: “We will focus on investing in the existing formal architecture in the region and continuing to build this network of formal and informal relationships. And then we will see where that takes us.”
An Asian NATO “It is not what we are looking for in the region,” An anonymous US official told Nikkei.
While the official said the United States wants to avoid the creation of a “block-type alliance” In the Asia-Pacific region, Washington has spent decades building a network of multilateral partnerships and agreements in the area that its rivals – particularly Beijing – see as steps toward a “Asian NATO”.
The AUKUS pact between Australia, the UK and the US, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US have been criticised by China as attempts by Washington to “provoke confrontation” NATO's growing cooperation with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand has also been condemned by Beijing, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian calling in July on the bloc's leaders to “Stop creating tensions, spreading the Cold War mentality and provoking bloc confrontations in Asia and the Pacific.”
Russia, China and North Korea have criticized the defense treaties the United States maintains with South Korea and Japan. Joint exercises between the militaries of the United States, South Korea and Japan have increased in scale and frequency, and have “with anti-Russian and anti-Chinese overtones,” Last week, the head of the First Department for Asia at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Georgy Zinoviev, warned.
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Ishiba's proposal has also been criticized within Japan. “The essence of NATO is to collectively protect a member state from armed attack by a common foreign enemy,” Toshimitsu Motegi, who is also in the running to succeed Kishida, told Nikkei. “Unlike Europe, Asia is made up of countries with diverse cultures and political systems. Each country has different relationships with China.”
Kishida, who has also stated that Japan should “strengthen its cooperation with NATO and its partners,” Last month, Kishida announced he would step down as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LPR) amid dismal approval ratings. The LPR will hold an internal vote to elect Kishida's successor on September 27.
