Kishida plans 4-way meeting on sidelines with South Korea, Australia, New Zealand
Japanese, Australian and U.S. destroyers participate in last December's Annualex joint exercise. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Pacific Fleet)
YUSUKE TAKEUCHI, Nikkei staff writer
June 25, 2022 05:45
JST
TOKYO -- Japanese
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is arranging a four-way summit with South Korea,
Australia and New Zealand on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO gathering,
seeking a united front among the Indo-Pacific democracies in the face of
China's growing influence.
The leaders of the four Asia-Pacific partners of NATO have been
invited to attend the summit of the trans-Atlantic alliance in Madrid next
week. Kishida hopes to work with the other three nations to press for NATO's
increased involvement in Asia-Pacific security.
The four-way summit would seek to showcase solidarity among
countries with shared values including freedom, the rule of law, and human
rights. The U.S. could participate in the framework as well.
The four countries share a view of China as a threat. Besides
Japan's friction with China over the Senkaku Islands and alarm over the growing
tensions surrounding Taiwan, South Korea worries about Beijing cooperating with
North Korea as Pyongyang continues to pursue its nuclear and missile programs.
Australia and New Zealand are wary of Chinese influence in
Pacific island nations, a concern fueled by developments including Beijing's
security agreement with the Solomon Islands and reports that China will help
fund upgrades to an airstrip in
Kiribati.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with counterparts from 10
Pacific island countries this May in a bid for a broader security cooperation
deal. While no agreement was reached, the move stoked alarm over Beijing's
military involvement in the region.
Japan and Australia are part of the Quadrilateral Security
Dialogue, or Quad, with the U.S. and India. The security grouping held its
first-ever summit virtually in March 2021, followed by an in-person meeting of
leaders that fall, and agreed this May to hold regular summits.
Group diplomacy has come into focus amid mounting skepticism
about the ability of existing international organizations to tackle security
crises. Russia's veto on the United Nations Security Council, for example, has
hindered the response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
And China's economic and military might have grown to the point
where the U.S. would be hard-pressed to deal with Beijing on its own, spurring
Washington to lead a push for new multilateral groupings in the Indo-Pacific.
The U.S. and a number of partners, including Japan, Australia
and New Zealand along with the U.K. and France, are set to launch a new
initiative soon to monitor maritime activity, as well as support island nations
in dealing with climate change and developing infrastructure.
U.S. President Joe Biden in May launched the
Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which now has 14 members, including
India and Southeast Asian countries. Before that, last September saw the
inauguration of the AUKUS security pact among Australia, the U.S. and the U.K.
At the NATO summit, Kishida plans to stress Japan's resolve to
keep up support for Ukraine and sanctions against Russia, and to bolster its
own self-defense capabilities. Kishida will reiterate that Japan will not
tolerate any attempts to change the status quo unilaterally by force.
At the same time, Tokyo will push for stronger deterrence to
prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan on top of that conflict.
European NATO members hope to leverage their Asian partners to
strengthen the bloc's ability to deal with the Russian threat on Europe's
doorstep. Meanwhile, the alliance plans to mention China in its main strategic
document for the first time in an upcoming update.
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