Japan got a new prime minister earlier this week. Within days after Shigeru Ishiba took charge of the PM office, he floated a radical idea of ‘Asian NATO’, a NATO-like alliance that would protect against security threats from China and Russia.
As stupid of an idea it may seem, Asian NATO actually makes sense for Japan. The Japanese Constitution, particularly Article 9, permits only the use of minimum force to defend the territory and population of Japan, and not others. Its military after World War II is known as the Self-Defense Forces. In the event of conflict in the region, Japan cannot be involved unless its own territory and citizens are under risk of being attacked.
Japan has effectively no ability to act preemptively, including possessing a first-strike capability if it feels it is being threatened.
Having an Asian NATO arrangement, however, would allow the Japanese greater leeway to be involved in other Asian geopolitical hotspots without contravening its own Constitution.
However, it’s also a fact that the world doesn’t revolve around Japan. Just days after Ishiba proposed the idea, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was quick to rubbish it. He made it clear India doesn’t share the vision of such a concept.
Speaking at an event in Washington, Jaishankar said, “We don’t have that kind of strategic architecture in mind.” He added, “We have … a different history and different way of approaching….”
Without India, the country with the fourth-strongest military in the world and the third in Asia after Russia and China, the idea of an Asian NATO will make no sense.
Not just India, even Southeast Asian nations are yawning at the idea. Channel News Asia, Southeast Asia’s international news platform, writes, “It is highly doubtful that any Southeast Asian nation would want to be part of a military alliance that obliges them to defend Japanese interests if called upon to.”
Let’s not forget that while India enjoys very strong ties with Russia, Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia like Malaysia and Indonesia have witnessed a swing of support towards China away from the US. Muslim countries here are fast drifting away from US because of its steady support to Israel in its conflict against Iranian proxies.
After India rejected the idea this week, both foreign and defence ministers of Japan announced Tokyo too is dropping the idea.
Defence minister Gen Nakatani said, “In his instructions yesterday, the prime minister did not mention anything about considering something like an Asian version of Nato.”
While US has officially shied away from supporting the idea of an Asian NATO, it can be assumed the plan must have been designed in Washington DC. Asian NATO would only fulfill the interests of US. It would not only absolve the US of its security promises to Japan but also drive a wedge between BRICS partners India and Russia and Southeast Asia and China. It’s a plan designed to divide, bearing the hallmark of American agenda.
US understands that if Russia, China and India, the world’s second, third and fourth largest militaries come together and form an informal alliance, its global hegemony will come crashing down in no time. But it’s so naïve for the US to think these three superpowers will fall prey to these vicious American designs.