NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will meet the leaders of South Korea and Japan in Seoul and Tokyo on Sunday and Tuesday to strengthen cooperation with two allies in a region considered important for Euro-Atlantic security.
Stoltenberg begins his trip in Seoul, where he will meet with Foreign Minister Park Jin and National Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup.
Then he will go to Tokyo to meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other members of the executive, according to the program of visits released by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
Japan is the current president of the group of the most industrialized countries in the world, the G7, in which it has as partners six NATO members – the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, plus the European Union (EU). ).
In that capacity, Kishida recently undertook a tour of the G7 capitals that was seen as positive in Japan’s affirmation as a partner in a region already in tension over China and North Korea.
An official NATO source told Lusa that South Korea and Japan “are two of NATO’s closest partners” and that Stoltenberg’s trip will make it possible to discuss strengthening cooperation.
“NATO’s new Strategic Concept highlights the importance of the Indo-Pacific region for NATO, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security,” the same source said.
The document was approved by the 30 members of the Alliance at the Madrid summit in July last year, in which the four NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific participated for the first time: Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
NATO declared in the document that “the Euro-Atlantic area is in danger” and accused Russia of violating the rules of principle that allowed for a “stable and predictable European security order” by launching the war against Ukraine on February 24 last year. .
In the new Strategic Concept, Vladimir Putin’s Russia became “the most significant and direct threat to the security of the Allies”, after having appeared as a “strategic partner” in the 2010 document.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was included for the first time and NATO deemed the Xi Jinping regime’s “ambitions and coercive policies” to “defy the interests, security and values” of the Alliance.
NATO said the PRC uses its economic power to “create strategic dependencies and increase its influence” while remaining opaque about “strategy, intentions and military development.”
For NATO, Xi and Putin have a “strategic partnership” to try to subvert the rules-based international order, which is contrary to the interests of the Atlantic Alliance.
International policy analyst Miguel Monjardino considered, in statements to Lusa, that Stoltenberg’s visit is a demonstration of how NATO tries to adapt to the current historical moment.
“There is a bifurcation point in the international system,” said Monjardino, who pointed out that the model in question “tends to be very favorable” for the Western allies.
Monjardino pointed out that bifurcation moments occur periodically in history, but they are “always a shock” and create “perplexity and uncertainty.”
For the university professor, the historical period that has been lived in the last 30-40 years “is coming to an end” and the war against Ukraine results from an “assessment of risks and opportunities” carried out by the Russian president.
“This war did not happen by chance. From Vladimir Putin’s point of view, this war should serve to speed up the transition to a new configuration of the international system, ”he said.
Monjardino pointed out that China also wants a new configuration of the system, which will also be what the so-called “Global South” or “Global South” wants, referring to countries like India, and African and South American countries.
“From the ideological point of view, there is a great convergence of ideas between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,” he defended.
In the current historical moment, Monjardino sees Stoltenberg’s trip to Asia as a NATO “taking steps to ensure its power and influence in international terms.”
“Japan and South Korea, democratic powers, industrial powers, have an important role to play in the new international configuration and hence, as the Strategic Concept shows, the need to strengthen relations with these Asian countries,” he argued.
Source: TSF
