That Japan news is huge.
Exclusive: Japan is in talks to open a NATO office as Ukraine war makes world less stable, foreign minister says
“Tokyo
CNN
—
Japan is in talks to open a NATO liaison office, the first of its kind in Asia, the country’s foreign minister told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the world less stable.
“We are already in discussions, but no details (have been) finalized yet,” Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Wednesday, speaking a week ahead of the Group of Seven summit, hosted this year by Japan in Hiroshima.
Hayashi specifically cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year as an event with repercussions far beyond Europe’s borders that forced Japan to rethink regional security.
“The reason why we are discussing about this is that since the aggression by Russia to Ukraine, the world (has) become more unstable,” he said.”
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/asia/japan-foreign-minister-hayashi-nato-intl-hnk/index.html
Too bad Western Europe is slow to catch on.
No doubt, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been one of, if not the most destabilizing global event since the end of the Cold War. On a global basis, even more so than Obama’s “Arab Spring”. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia, along with the US, are right to strengthen their defenses and regional cooperation. Better late than never.
But for the long term, China is the threat, and both East and West would be best served by trade alliances that reduce and restrict imports from China, while also increasing military readiness. With Indonesia, India, Thailand and Vietnam (all countries with no dreams of global hegemony) for our “cheap labor”, and no dependence on China for critical technology, pharmaceuticals and other imports, China could be brought to heel without war.