Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said he will attend this month’s NATO summit in Madrid, becoming the country’s first leader to join a top meeting of the transatlantic group.

The announcement on Wednesday comes ahead of a June 28-30 gathering of the military alliance that is seen as a crunch moment for its 30 members, four months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Sweden and Finland, which have applied to join NATO, are sending delegations to the summit, and South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-yeol will also be the first leader from his country to attend.

sive supplies to Ukraine and imposed tough sanctions on Russia in tandem with the other Group of Seven (G7) countries.

“As the only Asian country in the G7, Japan’s diplomatic capabilities are being tested,” Kishida told reporters.

His attendance at the NATO summit will be “the first time for a Japanese prime minister”, he said, adding that he intends to highlight the link between security concerns in Europe and Asia.

Kishida has already pledged significant strengthening of Japan’s military capability and budget.

He said protecting lives and turning around the economy were his key promises since he took office, and that “I will fulfil my responsibility as prime minister by keeping the promises.”

In recent weeks, Kishida has hosted a summit of the Quad grouping of nations and has made trips to countries including Singapore, where he gave a keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit on Friday.

“I myself have a strong sense of urgency that Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” he warned there.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/15/japan-to-attend-nato-summit-for-first-time

Mynd44 Lalasticlala Seun

Nato is sending message to Russia and china with their expansion, "we are coming for you" but they expect Russia/China to just sit and watch them(nato) expand and get stronger? I laugh in Swahili

North and China will be on y'all ass!

This Japan nation is a disgrace, they're just too weak.
USA nuked them with a nuclear weapon twice and practically destroy Their lives a couple years ago and here they are now practically a slave to the USA, they're not allowed to have a millitary and they practically depend on the USA for the defense of their country.
A country with 80million people and a robust economy that cannot defend itself

Japan is a full blown disgrace. Well they will be nuked again.

shogsman:
This Japan nation is a disgrace, they're just too weak.
USA nuked them with a nuclear weapon twice and practically destroy Their lives a couple years ago and here they are now practically a slave to the USA, they're not allowed to have a millitary and they practically depend on the USA for the defense of their country.
A country with 80million people and a robust economy that cannot defend itself

Japanese economy, Italian and German economy is totally controlled by USA, with a switch of hands USA will destroy their economy. The same with South Korea.

Both nations that were bombed into submission in the past lol.

The rest of us saw this coming. Japan and South Korea will be full members of NATO before Joe Biden leaves office. The main goal is to bring Japan into the saddle IN THE FIGHT AGAINST RUSSIA.
NATO wants Russia to be squeezed from the Eastern front and the Western front when the real ( direct) war on Russia begins.NATO also wants someone to harass China should the U.S. confront that country on Taiwan issue.

shogsman:
This Japan nation is a disgrace [...]
A country with 80million people and a robust economy that cannot defend itself

The same thing the U.S. wants for Europe. No continental European defense. NATO IS THERE TO WATCH.
Only Germany is seeing the danger coming.

US is sending strong signal. If you know. You know