France opposed to opening of Nato liaison office in Japan, official says. France reluctant to support anything that fuels tensions with China

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France opposed to opening of Nato liaison office in Japan, official says​

Nato statutes ‘clearly limit the scope to North Atlantic’, official says, with reports that president Macron personally objects to the idea

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and agencies
Wed 7 Jun 2023 04.12 BST

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”.

There have been suggestions, alluded to most recently by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, that the organisation would open an office in Tokyo – its first in Asia – in response to the growing challenge posed by China and Russia.

Growing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow 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 began in 2019 – before the current war in Ukraine and Beijing and Moscow declaring their “no-limits” partnership – are a result of long expanding 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 is apparently reluctant to support 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 on Tuesday.

“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 added, reacting to an article first published in the Financial Times.

Japan’s top government spokesperson, 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, according to the Kyodo news agency.

Beijing has reacted angrily to the proposal for a liaison office in Japan, first reported last month.

“Asia lies beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic,” Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in response to the FT report, according to Kyodo.

“However, we have seen Nato bent on going east into this region, interfering in regional affairs and inciting bloc confrontation.”

He said Japan should make the “right call” and refrain from doing anything that “undermines mutual trust between regional countries and peace and stability in the region”.

Nato, originally designed as a transatlantic security organisation against the Soviet-era Communist bloc, is attempting to define its role in the face of a rising China, while also supporting Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Stoltenberg 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.”

Without saying specifically where, he noted there had been a “request” to have a Nato liaison office “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”.

French officials are also unhappy that the issue appeared in the press before there were full consultations between Nato members.

Macron earlier this year made a high-profile state visit to boost relations with China under president Xi Jinping,
controversially suggesting afterwards that Europe should keep a distance from China-US tensions over Taiwan.

France opposed to opening of Nato liaison office in Japan, official says

Nato statutes ‘clearly limit the scope to North Atlantic’, official says, with reports that president Macron personally objects to the idea

www.theguardian.com

 

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Who says Nato is united?

 

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NATO In Japan | Macron Fears "Big Mistake" Will Undermine European Credibility, Draw China's Wrath​

 

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Most Europeans share Macron's view on China and U.S., survey finds​

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony as part of the 79th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Normandy landings, in Colleville-Montgomery, Normandy, France, on Tuesday | POOL / VIA REUTERS

BY GABRIEL DOMINGUEZ

Jun 8, 2023

In April, French President Emmanuel Macron faced strong international backlash when he said Europe should follow neither the U.S. nor China’s position on Taiwan and focus on building “strategic autonomy.”

But while the stunning remarks caused a stir among politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, they seem to have resonated with a majority of Europeans, according to a new multicountry survey report by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) think tank.

Released Wednesday, the report suggests that both Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s policy positions of seeing China as a strategic and global partner are “broadly in line with European public opinion” — with many viewing China more as a “necessary partner” than a “rival” to their countries and to Europe as a whole.

The study — based on a poll with more than 16,000 respondents from 11 European countries — also shows that 62% of Europeans believe their countries should remain neutral in any conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan, while less than a quarter (23%) would favor taking the U.S. side.

This is also in line with Macron’s remarks who had said in an April interview with Politico and Les Echos that “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours” — including Taiwan.

The ECFR also found that while the United States has largely restored its reputation as an “ally” and “partner” of the European Union, most Europeans (74%) want to see the bloc become less dependent on U.S. security guarantees and invest in its own defensive capabilities.

“Europeans want to see the EU become more self-reliant in foreign policy and build up its own defensive capabilities,” said Jana Puglierin, a ECFR senior fellow who co-authored the report.

The findings also suggest that, when it comes to China and its perceived ambitions, there may be a disconnect between what the think tank described as the “hawkish policy position of leaders in Brussels” and the wider European public who show little appetite to “decouple” relations with Beijing.

In particular, the paper noted that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “still needs to convince the European public about the need to de-risk the EU’s relationship with Beijing.”

“In many ways, European citizens are more on ‘Team Macron’ than ‘Team von der Leyen,’” wrote the authors of the report, noting that many do not see China as a power that challenges and wants to undermine Europe, and they do not buy into the “democracy versus autocracy” framework promoted by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talks to French President Emmanuel Macron in Potsdam, Germany, on Tuesday | POOL / VIA REUTERS

Pawel Zerka, who also co-authored the report, argues that the European public’s more nuanced view of the risks of economic interdependence with Beijing is not only related to the geographical distance to China but also the fact that, apart from some European countries (like Germany or Lithuania), these risks are rarely discussed in the public sphere or by mass media outlets.

In fact, despite the “no-limits” partnership that China and Russia announced in February 2022 and Beijing’s subsequent refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the poll results show that Europeans’ perception of China has “changed surprisingly little” when compared with poll results from 2021.

“Now, the prevailing view in almost every country in which we polled is that China is Europe’s, and the respective country’s ‘necessary partner,’” added the report authors, noting that Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark are the only countries where the prevailing view is to see China as a “rival” or an “adversary,” rather than an “ally” or “partner.” This was also the case in 2021.

“This shows that European leaders need to engage more in public discussions about the risks of failing to prepare for various threats and scenarios,” including a potential U.S.-China war and the likely pressure on Europe to fight alongside Washington.

The survey also indicates that most Europeans would balk at the idea of widening their sanctions program to include Beijing. The authors pointed to some practical reasons behind it, including the EU members’ different levels of economic exposure to China and their varied economic vulnerability overall.

That said, ECFR found that 41% of those surveyed would be in favor of slapping economic sanctions on China if it moved to deliver ammunition and weapons to Russia, even if that meant seriously harming Western economies. Many also oppose the idea of Chinese ownership of key infrastructure, such as bridges or ports (65%), tech companies (52%) or newspapers (59%) in Europe.

Nevertheless, the European public’s demand for a high degree of autonomy vis-a-vis the U.S on foreign policy and defense issues, particularly on Taiwan, raises questions about how much military support Tokyo and Washington could expect from Europe in case of a Sino-U.S. conflict in the Indo-Pacific.

Both have urged Europe to get more involved in Asian security issues, and there are even plans to open a NATO liaison office in Tokyo, the alliance’s first such station in Asia.

However, resistance from France has complicated the issue, with Macron arguing that the transatlantic alliance should remain focused on its own region. The Financial Times quoted French officials as saying they are reluctant to back anything that “contributes to NATO-China tension.”

Other media outlets quoted French officials as saying that if NATO needed situational awareness in the region it could use the embassies designated as points of contact.

The opening of such an office in Japan is believed to require the unanimous approval of all NATO member states, meaning France could veto the move.

Zerka points out that while there is currently little appetite among the European public for a greater military presence in Asia, future events could make people change their minds.
“Two years ago, most Europeans perceived Russia as Europe’s partner, while currently, after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, they massively see it as an adversary,” he said.
“We don’t know what the public levels of support will be, as a U.S.-China war is still only a hypothetical possibility, but the public is not stupid, it adapts its opinion to the events.”

Most Europeans share Macron's view on China and U.S., survey finds

The report suggests that both France and Germany's policy positions of seeing China as a global partner are “broadly in line with European public opinion.”

www.japantimes.co.jp