Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi plans to visit Turkey in early July for events related to the annual NATO summit and talks with his counterparts, sources familiar with the planning said Thursday.
Koizumi is expected to attend a dinner with other defense ministers and exchange views with industry figures, the sources said, as the summit of the NATO military alliance is scheduled for July 7 and 8.
He may also meet with his counterparts from the alliance’s Indo-Pacific partners, known as the IP4, including Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, while also seeking separate talks with his NATO counterparts, the sources said.
His envisaged trip comes at the invitation of NATO.
Japan has been pursuing stronger ties with NATO amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, closer alignment among China, Russia and North Korea, and increasingly aggressive Chinese military activity in the East and South China seas, with both sides viewing security in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions as “inseparable.”
In 2024, then Defense Minister Gen Nakatani took part in the first meeting of the IP4 defense ministers with their NATO counterparts.
Amid its deepening cooperation with NATO, Japan earlier this year sent four Self-Defense Forces personnel to the alliance’s Ukraine support headquarters in Germany for the first time.
© KYODO
