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Tokyo (AFP): Japan is set to strengthen its international alliances by recognising that it shares common values with NATO, Australia and New Zealand, a report said Monday. The acknowledgement is likely to come in a joint US-Japan security report to be released in late January, when the two governments are to meet to discuss their security alliance, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said.
US government officials had called on Tokyo to designate NATO, Australia and New Zealand as having “common values” with Japan and the US when the report is issued, the daily said.
The Japanese government has accepted the US request, the Mainichi said, adding that Washington aims to increase its participation in Japan's missile defense system with the publication of the report.
The missile defence project has been a key part of the strengthened Japan-US military alliance in recent years.
The news report came ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to Europe, where he will meet the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Belgium as well as NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
In Brussels he will become the first Japanese premier to attend a meeting of NATO's policy-making body, the North Atlantic Council.
Japan was prompted to boost its missile defenses in cooperation with the United States in 1998 when North Korea fired a long-range missile over its main island and into the Pacific.
North Korea's July 5 firing of seven missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) also fueled the drive for the joint missile scheme.
