Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg pledged to deepen their cooperation at a meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.

This was disclosed in a joint statement.

“Together, we can and will do more to address shared challenges, including Russian aggression and China’s coercive behaviour,” Mr Stoltenberg said in a tweet after the meeting.

Identifying NATO and Japan as “reliable and neutral partners” sharing common values, the two leaders said the world faced the “most severe and complex” security situation since the end of World War II.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has shattered the peace and shaken the foundation of the rules-based international order,” it said, adding that it affected the security environment.

“The balance of power is also rapidly shifting in the Indo-Pacific,” the two leaders noted, adding that “unilateral change of the status quo by force or coercion is not acceptable anywhere in the world.”

“We recognise that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and of the Indo- Pacific is closely connected and stress the necessity of further strengthening cooperation between Japan and NATO,” the statement added.

(dpa/NAN)