TOKYO, April 7. /TASS/. NATO countries are planning to increase the alliance's involvement in the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region (APR). Such a wish was expressed by the US administration, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said.
"The US wants NATO to be more involved (in the region) ... in a sense of projecting power," Rutte told The Japan Times. The secretary-general said North Atlantic Alliance member-states would "support the US in its pivot toward Asia."
Rutte emphasized that Washington has clearly stated that it wants the help of NATO allies in implementing the strategy of "projecting collective power" in the Asia-Pacific region. In this case, he said, its driving force will be, of course, the United States. NATO secretary-general also clarified that it is not a question of extending Article 5 of the NATO Charter to its Asian allies.
Article 5 of the NATO Charter stipulates that "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all. In this case, each state undertakes to implement retaliatory actions, "including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area."
Earlier, the Japanese Foreign Ministry announced that Rutte will pay a visit from April 8 to 10. He will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and discuss Ukraine, as well as cooperation in maintaining and strengthening a free and open world order based on the rule of law. Japan has been actively expanding its cooperation with NATO in recent years. Its prime minister has attended the alliance's summits several times, and in January this year, a separate Japanese permanent mission to NATO opened in Brussels.
In July 2024, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference at the United Nations that the North Atlantic Alliance was taking practical steps to penetrate the Asia-Pacific region. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova later noted that the West is introducing aggressive NATO-style pseudo-alliances in the Asia-Pacific in a bid to control Eurasia. She cited the example of the QUAD alliance (the Pacific Four: Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) and the AUKUS military bloc (the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia), "which have in their essence a claim to maritime domination."
