NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urges closer ties with Japan to defend democracy

NATO SecretaryGeneral 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 orderCalling 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 rulesbased orderHe said transAtlantic and IndoPacific security are deeply interconnected and a victory by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine would send a message that authoritarian regimes can achieve their goals through brute force This is dangerous he saidChina is watching closely and learning lessons that may influence its future decisions Stoltenberg said at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida China is substantially building up its military forces including nuclear weapons bullying its neighbours and threatening Taiwan trying to control critical infrastructure and spreading misinformation about NATO and the war in Ukraine Stoltenberg said China is not our adversary but we must understand the scale of the challenge and work together to address itStoltenbergs direct criticism of China contrasted with Kishidas more indirect expression of opposition to any onesided changes by force to the status quo in the East and South China SeasJapan already a close ally of the United States has in recent years expanded its military ties with other IndoPacific nations as well as with Britain Europe and NATO amid a growing security threat from China and North Korea It was quick to join in USled economic sanctions against Russias war in Ukraine and provided humanitarian aid and noncombative defense equipment for Ukrainians That was mainly because of Japanese fear that Russian aggression in Europe could be reflected in Asia where concerns are growing over growing Chinese assertiveness and escalating tensions over its claim to TaiwanAlso read NATO chief says wonrsquot back down on Ukraine aidAt the news conference Kishida welcomed NATOs deepening interest and engagement in the IndoPacific region and announced that Japan will open a delegation office at NATO and plans to regularly attend council meetings and chiefs of defense meetings to promote closer communication between Japan and the allianceKishida said he and Stoltenberg agreed to advance ties in areas such as cyberspace space disinformation and critical and emerging technology Japans government issued a new national security strategy in December stating its determination to build up its military and deploy longrange missiles to preempt enemy attacks in a major break from its postWorld War II principle that limited itself to selfdefense Japan also plans to nearly double its defense spending over five years and hopes to further ease restrictions on arms exports to strengthen its defense industryStoltenberg 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 longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries in conflictNorth Korea condemned Stoltenbergs visits to South Korea and Japan saying that NATO was trying to put its military boots in the region and attempting to pressure Americas Asian allies into providing weapons to UkraineIn a statement released by the staterun Korean Central News Agency North Korea criticized increasing cooperation between NATO and US allies in Asia as a process to create an Asian version of NATO that would raise tensions in the regionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever