Japan’s defense minister wants Washington to “unite” its web of informal alliances in Asia into a formal military bloc
A senior US State Department official has said that it is “too early” to talk about building a NATO-style bloc in Asia, after Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba called on Washington to discuss the matter in more depth.
Ishiba, who is a leading candidate to succeed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, called last week for the creation of an “Asian version of NATO” by “uniting” its various security arrangements in the region into a formal defense pact. “At least we should deepen our discussions on this topic,” he said.
Speaking at a conference in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Assistant US Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Kritenbrink shot down Ishiba’s suggestion.
“It’s too early to talk about collective security in that context, and [the creation of] more formal institutions,” Kritenbrink said, according to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper. “What we’re focused on is investing in the region’s existing formal architecture and continuing to build this network of formal and informal relationships. And then we’ll see where that goes.”
An Asian NATO “is not what we’re looking for in the region,” an anonymous US official told Nikkei.
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While the official said that the US wants to avoid creating a “bloc-style alliance” in the Asia-Pacific region, Washington has spent decades building a web of partnerships and multilateral agreements in the area that its rivals – particularly Beijing – see as steps toward a de-facto “Asian NATO.”