Faced with threats from Russia and its Asian supporters, NATO and Indo-Pacific partners get closer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four Indo-Pacific countries attending the NATO summit issued a joint statement Thursday to “strongly condemn the illicit military cooperation” between Russia and North Korea, showing how the military alliance and its Pacific partners are forging closer ties to counter what they see as shared security threats.

For the third year in a row, leaders or their deputies from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia — which are not NATO members — attended the high-level meeting of the 75-year-old military alliance of European and North American countries. In Washington, they launched cooperative projects on Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

“We will address our shared security challenges, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, China’s support for Russia’s war economy and the growing alignment of authoritarian powers,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said when meeting officials of the four Pacific partners. “We must work even more closely together to preserve peace and protect the rules-based international order.”

“Our security is not regional. It is global,” he said.

The White House said it welcomed the attendance of the four Indo-Pacific countries at the NATO meeting because the threats and challenges among the regions are interconnected.

In an interview with the South Korean news agency Yonhap, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Washington wants to “institutionalize” the grouping of the four countries as Washington refocuses its attention in the region.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told fellow leaders that solidarity among like-minded countries has become more important than ever when facing interlinked challenges such as the war in Ukraine and