By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-03-27 00:25:56 | Updated at 2025-04-05 01:03:42
1 week ago
TOKYO - Japan is “seriously concerned” over growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as closer ties between the two could affect the security environment in Asia, a draft of its annual foreign policy paper showed on March 26.
The Diplomatic Bluebook for 2025 will reiterate Japan is committed to building a strong trust relationship with the United States, while emphasising the importance of “peace and stability” across the Taiwan Strait, according to the draft obtained by Kyodo News.
Amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s missile and nuclear development, the two countries signed a comprehensive partnership treaty in June 2024, with Pyongyang sending troops and missiles to support Moscow’s war efforts.
Before US President Donald Trump – a skeptic of multilateralism who has adopted a softer stance on Moscow – returned to the White House in January, Japan and the other Group of Seven members harshly condemned the deepening ties between the Russian and North Korean forces.
Japan will “continue to make contributions” to addressing challenges that the global community faces by communicating with Mr Trump’s administration, the draft said, referring to the first summit between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Mr Trump in Washington in February.
Japan has also become more vigilant against China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan – a self-ruled democratic island that Beijing views as its own to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary – due to the proximity to south-western Japanese islands.
Mentioning China’s “attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force” in the East and South China seas, many challenges and matters of concern persist but Japan will promote “strategic and mutually beneficial relations” with China, the draft said.
On South Korea, currently faced with political uncertainty following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law in early December 2024, the Tokyo-Seoul relationship remains crucial and Japan will closely work together with its “important neighbour” to deal with North Korea, the paper said. KYODO NEWS
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