{"id":10210,"date":"2025-06-25T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:45:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-06-25T12:45:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T09:45:54","slug":"japans-prime-minister-skips-nato-summit-amid-alliance-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harici.com.tr\/en\/japans-prime-minister-skips-nato-summit-amid-alliance-strain\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s prime minister skips NATO summit amid alliance strain"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth month of Donald Trump’s second administration, the United States and its most crucial ally in the West Pacific, Japan, appear to be out of sync.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced he would not attend this week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands. Additionally, he neither supported nor condemned Trump’s decision over the weekend to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n

These are just the latest signs of discord that have emerged in recent weeks. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya is set to visit Washington for a QUAD foreign ministers’ meeting with his counterparts from India and Australia later this month, but the expected two-plus-two meeting of US and Japanese foreign and defense ministers will not take place.<\/p>\n

A US official told<\/a><\/span> Nikkei Asia<\/em> in late May that an inter-agency agreement had been reached on the US side to demand that Japan increase its defense spending to 3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) as part of ongoing trade negotiations aimed at reducing tariffs.<\/p>\n

However, a new figure of “3.5%” began circulating in Washington after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 30.<\/p>\n

A Pentagon statement released two days after the meeting said, “Secretary Hegseth conveyed that Australia needs to increase its defense spending to 3.5% of its GDP as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

US officials, led by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, began stating that the new “fixed demand” for Asian allies was 3.5%.<\/p>\n

Last week, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell formalized this by issuing a statement indicating that European allies had set a new “global standard” for US alliances at 5% of GDP. This statement was related to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s recently announced spending targets of 3.5% for military procurements and 1.5% for related infrastructure.<\/p>\n

A Japanese official told Nikkei<\/em> that Tokyo was open to discussions on increasing defense spending, but the process appeared disorderly. Officials noted that Washington had not officially communicated any figures to Japan. It was also reported that Japanese officials had difficulty communicating directly with Colby.<\/p>\n

Another Japanese official stated that if Japan were to increase its defense spending (currently 1.8% of GDP, with plans to reach 2% by fiscal year 2027), it would be a sovereign decision by Tokyo and would need to be explained with justifications that could be presented to the Japanese public.<\/p>\n

Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said the Trump administration had been “pretty inconsistent” in its approach to Japan, and this uncertainty would create a challenge for the alliance.<\/p>\n

“Ishiba’s cancellation of the NATO meeting and the two-plus-two meeting, when put together, certainly form a concerning set of signals,” he said.<\/p>\n

Cooper assessed, “To me, this suggests that Tokyo wants to wait for the upper house elections [on July 20] rather than engage directly with the Trump administration.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fifth month of Donald Trump’s second administration, the United States and its most crucial ally in the West Pacific, Japan, appear to be out of sync. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced he would not attend this week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands. Additionally, he neither supported nor condemned Trump’s decision […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10211,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10973,6312,1233,319,5330,625,10976,6602,6733,10975,1453,10974,3200,7132,6609],"class_list":["post-10210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-alliance-discord","tag-defense-spending","tag-diplomatic-ties","tag-donald-trump","tag-elbridge-colby","tag-foreign-policy","tag-global-standard","tag-indo-pacific-security","tag-japan-us-relations","tag-military-expenditure","tag-nato-summit","tag-quad-meeting","tag-shigeru-ishiba","tag-strategic-partnership","tag-trade-negotiations"],"yoast_head":"\nJapan's prime minister skips NATO summit amid alliance strain - Harici<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japan's PM skipping the NATO summit signals growing discord with the US. 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