Visit to NATO partners in Asia

“Our security is more interlinked than ever,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the start of the short message service Twitter. It is about promoting the rules-based international order.

Stoltenberg first met Foreign Minister Park Jin in the South Korean capital of Seoul. A meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol and Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup was also on the agenda.

NATO is concerned about North Korea’s “reckless” missile tests and nuclear weapons program while the war in Ukraine has implications for Asia, Stoltenberg told Park during the meeting. He expressed the suspicion that North Korea was supporting the Russian war effort militarily.

“This shows just how connected we are,” Park said. Both North Korea and Russia have denied US allegations that North Korea is supplying weapons for the war in Ukraine. North Korea on Sunday again criticized Washington’s decision to ship tanks to Ukraine.

Global Challenges

On Monday, Stoltenberg will fly to Tokyo, where he will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other Japanese officials.

While NATO will continue to focus on Europe and North America, its members are affected by issues around the world, Stoltenberg said in an interview with South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

“We must face these global threats and challenges, including the challenges emanating from China, and one way to do that is of course to work more closely with partners in the region,” he said. This includes Australia and New Zealand.

uh/pg (dpa, rtr)