/NATO: Stoltenberg To Visit Japan, South Korea Near Month-End

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will visit Japan and South Korea at the end of this month, the military alliance's press office confirmed following source reports circulated by local media.

• Stoltenberg will begin his trip with a visit to Seoul on January 29/30, where he will meet with South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin, National Defence Minister Lee Jong-Sup and other senior officials. He will then head to Tokyo on January 30/February 1, where he will meet with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
• The aim of the visit is strengthening security cooperation across the Indo-Pacific, with Stoltenberg expected to express support for Japan's revised National Security Strategy approved last year. The NATO chief is also looking to demonstrate the bloc's solidarity with the two East Asian democracies.
• Japan's military strategy recently underwent its first overhaul in a decade and second ever amid growing geopolitical threats posed by China and North Korea. In the updated document, Tokyo authorised the development of counterstrike capabilities and pledged to bring its defence spending in line with NATO's target of 2% of GDP.