Northeast AsiaPartnerships

Japan, NATO discussing hotline for sharing security information

FORUM Staff

The expanding cooperation between Japan and NATO is continuing with negotiations to establish a hotline for rapidly sharing security information on such threats as cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, including from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia.

The communication tool could be modeled on the system used by the 31-nation security alliance, which can be used to share information from remote locations, the Japanese news agency Nikkei reported in mid-January 2024.

Japan, one of NATO’s four Indo-Pacific partners along with Australia, South Korea and New Zealand, relies on face-to-face talks with the alliance on sensitive issues.

NATO has said cooperation with its Indo-Pacific partners is key to addressing the increasingly complex global security environment, including Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the PRC’s military buildup and aggressive actions, and security on the Korean Peninsula, where North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Japan has been strengthening its relationship with NATO for years. It appointed its first ambassador to NATO in 2019, and three years later Fumio Kishida became the first Japanese prime minister to attend a NATO summit. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also met with Kishida in Tokyo in January 2023. Japan has participated in NATO’s cyber defense exercises, and the country’s defense force took part in its first international emergency relief operation with NATO by flying supplies to Turkey following a February 2023 earthquake.

NATO and Japan also signaled their commitment to strengthening cooperation by signing an Individually Tailored Partnership Program agreement in July 2023. That will expand opportunities to cooperate in 16 areas, including cyber defense, maritime security, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

By enabling the rapid sharing of sensitive information, a hotline could be beneficial given the expanding risks from cyberattacks and other security threats, particularly from the PRC.

The PRC presents a “sophisticated, persistent cyber-enabled espionage and attack threat to military and critical infrastructure systems,” the United States Defense Department reported in October 2023. Additionally, the U.S. National Security Agency discovered that Chinese military hackers had compromised Japan’s classified defense networks, The Washington Post newspaper reported in August 2023.

Japan and the PRC agreed to establish a hotline in 2018 and their defense ministers inaugurated the system in May 2023, The Associated Press reported. The hotline is intended as a confidence-building measure to increase trust and avoid misunderstandings and conflict, including in the East China Sea, where Tokyo has accused Chinese vessels of unlawful intrusions into waters around Japan’s Senkaku Islands.

“Japan and NATO share the understanding that unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion will not be tolerated, regardless of where they occur in the world,” Kishida said after announcing the July 2023 cooperative agreement with the alliance.

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