France unenthusiastic’s plan for Nato liaison office in Japan

France is unenthusiastic about a proposal for Nato to open a liaison office in Japan, an official has said, days after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the move would be a big mistake.

China and Moscow's military cooperation in the Asia-Pacific was underlined on Tuesday when the Russian and Chinese militaries conducted joint patrols over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, prompting South Korea and Japan to scramble fighter jets in response.

The patrols, which started in 2019 as the current war in Ukraine and Beijing and Moscow declare their no-limits partnership, are a result of long-extending bilateral ties built partly on a mutual sense of threat from the US and other military alliances.

Despite calls for Nato to work more closely with allies in North East Asia, France appears unlikely to back anything that fuels tensions between the alliance and China.

Nato stands for North Atlantic, and both article V and article VI in its statutes clearly limit the scope to north Atlantic, a French official, who asked not to be named, said.

There is no Nato liaison office in any country in the region. If Nato needs situational awareness in the region, it can use the embassies designated as point of contact, the official said.

Japan's top government official, Hirokazu Matsuno, declined to comment on Macron's reported remarks, saying only that various considerations were under way inside Nato.

opening an office in Japan would require the unanimous approval of the North Atlantic Council, where France could use its veto to scupper the plan, the Kyodo news agency said.

Beijing has responded angrily to the idea for a liaison office in Japan, which was first reported last month.

China lies beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic, according to Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, according to Kyodo.

We have seen Nato bent on going into this region, interfering in regional affairs and inciting a bloc conflict, the report said. In an interview with The New York Times, he said Japan should make the right call and avoid doing anything that undermines mutual trust between regional countries and peace and stability in the region.

It has been said last week that what happens in Asia matters for Europe and what happens in Europe matters for Asia, and therefore it is even more important that Nato allies are strengthening our partnership with our Indo Pacific partners, he said. No specific location has been mentioned, he said, and we re looking into the possibility of establishing the office. The FT said Macron had personally objected to the idea. At a conference last week, he warned that expanding Nato's geography would be a big mistake.

Macron made a high-profile state visit earlier this year to boost relations between China and the USA, controversially suggesting afterward that Europe should keep a distance from China-US tensions over Taiwan.