Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), visited South Korea and Japan from January 29 to February 1, 2023, to strengthen the Transatlantic security alliance’s ties with key partners in the region.[1] Stoltenberg, who discussed the security issues related to China and North Korea as well as the war in Ukraine, committed to give more support to the security of the Pacific from now on. But in return, NATO also has expectations of its allies in the Pacific. This is, they stand with Europe in the war in Ukraine and take a common stance against Russia.
As it is known, in December 2022, South Korea, following the path of other Western allies, published the Indo-Pacific Strategy Document and stated that it is a “Global Pivot Country” with which the whole world can cooperate on regional security issues. Shortly before this, Japan, in its National Defense and Security Strategy, announced that it would increase its coordination with the United States of America (USA) to combat regional threats and emphasized that it would improve its joint response capabilities.
Again, as of the summer of 2022, joint exercises between South Korea, Japan and the USA have been resumed. The change in power in South Korea in the spring months was effective in the emergence of this rapprochement, and the Yoon Suk-yeol administration tended to improve its relations with Washington and develop warmer ties. With the effect of this, the dialogue between South Korea and Japan has also developed and a positive atmosphere has been created in the resolution of historical disputes. Ultimately, both countries began to converge around the security risks from North Korea and China.
From a broader perspective, the West’s security agenda has also begun to change as China has become more assertive in the international arena. Russia’s war in Ukraine and Beijing’s continued support for Moscow, China’s danger of accessing the critical infrastructures of European states with technological means, and its objective to achieve unification with Taiwan by hard power have contributed to the West’s broader interpretation of security threats.
In this process, North Korea’s missile tests, including intercontinental ballistics and hypersonic, have been other developments that endanger regional security, especially in Japan and South Korea. Due to these fears, the actors in the Asia-Pacific have sought to strengthen their defense cooperations among themselves and they have put utilization on their agenda advantage of the security guarantees offered by the West.
Western actors, on the other hand, started to look more warmly to a global security concept, considering that threats from China and North Korea would affect the whole world, such as the Ukraine-Russia War. This consensus that emerged between the Western and Asia-Pacific powers contributed to the development of global security understanding. With the effect of this, the leaders of South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand participated in the NATO Summit held in Madrid in June 2022 as observers for the first time. Thus, a harmony has begun to be achieved between the security agendas of Europe and Asia-Pacific.
The actor that most strongly defended the global security understanding was England. Especially as a result of the intense pressures of British Foreign Minister Liz Truss, the opinion that NATO should deal with the problems in the Pacific came to the fore. As a result of intense insistence of the USA and England, China was mentioned as a threat for the first time in NATO’s new strategic concept. Therefore, it has been tried to prepare a legitimate justification for NATO countries to fight China. However, it is not legally possible to apply Article 5 of the NATO Charter on collective defense for the Pacific and Taiwan. Article 6 of the NATO Charter clearly states that the alliance’s mandate is the Atlantic Ocean and the regions north of the Tropic of Cancer.[2] In that case, NATO cannot provide a direct protection for the Pacific.
The purpose of Stoltenberg’s visits to South Korea and Japan is to reiterate NATO’s support for the Pacific and in turn garner more support to Europe. According to this; if countries like Japan and South Korea give more support to Europe in the war in Ukraine, they will in turn be able to find NATO support against the threats of China and North Korea. What is more dangerous at this point is the deep and irreversible deterioration of the security of the Asia-Pacific. There is no deterrent collective defense organization in the region that can counter threats from China, North Korea or Russia.
Frankly, without the USA, the UK and other European states, it is almost impossible to establish a larger coalition/alliance that can counter these “three major threats” in the region. More unambivalently, it does not seem possible for actors such as India, Japan, Australia and Indonesia, which can be considered as the strongest actors in the region, to be able to oppose China, North Korea and Russia with their total defense capacities. This represents a significant security vacuum for Asia-Pacific. It is considered certain that states in question will fail to maintain their regional security without the help of Western great powers. Starting from this reality, actors such as Japan and South Korea are considering obtaining certain guarantees from NATO to assist regional security.
It is thought that in 2023, when Japan assumes the G7 Presidency, the security agenda of European actors will start to shift from Ukraine to China. As a result of the efforts of the USA and Japan, NATO is trying to draw European actors into the problems in the Asia-Pacific. This is not actually Europe’s war. It is a struggle of the USA against China to maintain its global hegemony. But Washington wants to drag Europe after it. For this, it tries to use NATO as a tool.
As a result, the world’s security agenda is shifting towards the Asia-Pacific. The USA, which supports the security of Europe, in return desires to establish a common front against China in the Asia-Pacific. In line with this trend, NATO is also looking for new partners in the region. Perceiving threats from North Korea and China, Japan seems to be the most suitable partner. South Korea, too, may begin to think that NATO will be an important and only source of deterrence in the face of nuclear threats from North Korea.
[1] “Nato Cements Ties with South Korea, Japan As Security Challenges Mount”, SCMP, https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3207863/nato-cements-ties-south-korea-japan-security-challenges-mount, (Date of Accession: 27.01.2023).
[2] “The North Atlantic Treaty”, NATO, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_17120.htm, (Date of Accession: 27.01.2023).
