Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday confirmed that strengthening defense industrial cooperation is a shared priority, pledging to promote cooperation in this area, Japan's Foreign Ministry said. During their meeting in Tokyo, Ishiba and Rutte also affirmed that Japan-NATO partnership is of strategic importance for the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific regions, the ministry said in a statement.
According to Kuwait News Agency, both sides agreed to further deepen cooperation in various fields, including cyber, maritime security, strategic communications, and interoperability, in order to elevate the Japan-NATO cooperation to a new height. "As the international security environment has become increasingly severe, it is our shared recognition that the security of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific is inseparable, and the need for security cooperation among NATO and Indo-Pacific partners, including Japan, has increased even further," Ishiba was quoted as saying. He also emphasized that Japan would like to cooperate with NATO in order to maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law.
In response, Rutte expressed his hopes to further strengthen the Japan-NATO cooperation, including in the field of the defense industry. On Russia's aggression against Ukraine, the two leaders stressed the importance of diplomatic efforts by relevant countries to achieve a just and lasting peace. In addition, they agreed to continue to work closely together on the advancement of North Korea's nuclear and missile activities, as well as its malicious cyber activities including cryptocurrency thefts, which funds such nuclear and missile activities.