Security of Euro-Atlantic, Indo-Pacific 'indivisible,' Japanese defense chief says after meeting NATO chief

By Saadet Gokce

ISTANBUL (AA) - Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday said that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific is "indivisible," after he met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos, Switzerland.

For this reason, cooperation between Japan and NATO, as well as between NATO and the Indo-Pacific Four (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea), is "growing in strategic importance," he said in a post on the US social media company X.

He also pledged to enhance cooperation between Japan and NATO.

It was Koizumi's first in-person meeting with Rutte since taking office in 2025.

In January last year, the Mission of Japan to NATO was inaugurated in Brussels as an independent mission from the Embassy of Japan in Belgium.

Koizumi said that he also met with Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans and Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milojko Spajic.