NATO is planning to open its first liaison office in Asia, in Japan, to facilitate talks with security partners such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, with geopolitical challenges from China and Russia in mind, the Nikkei Asia reported on Wednesday, citing Japanese and NATO officials. Expressing his reservations, China says that some forces want to make Asia abattle field and putting a huge population into trouble.
Mao Ning, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said Asia was a "promising land for cooperation and development and should not be a battle arena for geopolitics".
"NATO's continual eastward expansion in the Asia-Pacific, interference in regional affairs, attempts to destroy regional peace and stability, and push for bloc confrontation calls for high vigilance from countries in the region," Mao told a regular press conference.
The Nikkei Asia said the proposed office was due to open next year in Tokyo.
Asked about the Nikkei Asia report, NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said earlier the alliance would not go into details of NATO allies' deliberations.
"NATO has offices and liaison arrangements with a number of international organisations and partner countries, and allies regularly assess those liaison arrangements to ensure that they best serve the needs of both NATO and our partners," she said.
Lungescu said NATO has a close partnership with Japan that continued to grow.
In its outreach to Asia Pacific, NATO will open its first Asian office in Japan, a media report claimed on Wednesday.
The one-person liaison office in Tokyo, said Nikkei Asia in a report, “will allow the military alliance to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region, such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as China emerges as a new challenge, alongside its traditional focus on Russia.”
It added that NATO has already “circulated a draft proposal among its 31 members” regarding the opening of the office which was “first” discussed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg when the latter visited Japan in January.
Tokyo and NATO are also working to upgrade their cooperation, aiming to sign an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme (ITPP) before the NATO Summit in Lithuania in July, the report added.
NATO has liaison offices at the UN in New York, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Vienna in Europe, Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Kuwait.
Japan is already part of the US-led Quad, a loose security alliance with Australia and India as other two members against China’s expanding economic and military influence in the wider Asia-Pacific region.
While the NATO chief advocated strengthening ties with the Asia-Pacific region, China has pushed back such attempts.
“China firmly opposes certain elements clamoring for NATO’s involvement in Asia-Pacific, or an Asia-Pacific version of NATO on the back of military alliances,” Beijing told the UN Security Council last June while discussing the Ukraine conflict.
China’s top diplomat Qin Gang said in March during his maiden news conference that the US “Indo-Pacific Strategy” is in fact an “attempt to gang up to form exclusive blocs, to provoke a confrontation by plotting an Asia-Pacific version of NATO.”
Last month, NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg welcomed Japan’s decision to open a "dedicated diplomatic mission" to the military alliance.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, Stoltenberg said that no other partner is "closer and more capable" than Japan.
"We welcome very much that you have decided to open a dedicated diplomatic mission to NATO," said Stoltenberg, praising the partnership between NATO and Japan.
