East Asia and the repetition of NATO provocations against Ukraine
The presence of the top officials of South Korea and Japan for the first time in the summer meeting of NATO can somehow lead to the Ukrainianization of the East Asian region, as this meeting has been accompanied by a sharp reaction from Beijing.
NOURNEWS - During a speech at the end of his trip to the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed concern about the possibility of East Asia becoming the next Ukraine and called for the formation of a united front against China and North Korea.
The Prime Minister of Japan said in a press conference one day after he met Joe Biden:
"East Asia tomorrow may be like Ukraine today." He called the security concerns in the two regions "inseparable".
Kishida also stated that it is necessary for Japan to be able to rely on its allies and like-minded countries in the face of China's threat, and emphasized the need to expand relations with Western countries and strengthen Japan's weaponry.
The concern of Japanese statesmen to prevent East Asia from becoming the fate of Ukraine is a significant and important point of view as a security-oriented approach, but it is definitely necessary to pay attention to the main cause of the crisis in Ukraine in order to realize this.
A look at the history of the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Ukraine shows that since the 1990s, that the Soviet Union was collapsed, despite the commitments of Europe and the United States not to expand NATO, this process has actually accelerated, and as a result, according to Moscow, many of Russia's security red lines have been threatened and widely encountered.
Russia's clear claim is that the recent war in Ukraine started when the West announced Ukraine's membership plan to NATO, that was effectively a declaration of war against Moscow. The repetition of the same procedure in recent years by Western countries, especially the United States, against China is also a reminder of the movement in the same direction as the one that started the conflict in Ukraine today.
AUKUS agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States to build a nuclear submarine for Australia and strengthen the military presence of these countries in the Pacific Ocean is a manifestation of these provocative behaviors.
During these years, in addition to expanding military relations with countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, the West has launched an arms race in the region, which itself has become the basis for threatening China's security.
Side Taiwan's provocation against China has continued in a suspicious manner despite the Chinese's repeated warnings, so it seems that the solution to prevent East Asia from turning into Ukraine is no longer through Japan's cooperation with the West, because past experiences have shown that the West has the ability to produce crisis more than anything else.
On the other hand; Japanese government officials have also focused on a budget plan for the years 2023-2027 to increase Japan's military budget by 56% from the current 27.5 trillion yen to 43 trillion yen or 318 billion dollars in an action in line with the demands of the United States and NATO.
With this trend, in the next 5 to 10 years, the country's defense budget will reach 2% of the GDP, which is completely in line with the orders dictated by NATO, so the participation of the top officials of South Korea and Japan for the first time in the NATO summer meeting, could actually contribute to the Ukrainianization of the region, because this meeting has been accompanied by a sharp reaction from Beijing.
Japan's Yomiuri magazine also announced that the United States plans to deploy several units of its armed marines to the Japanese island of Okinawa by 2026 in order to confront the Chinese army.
The signing of the military treaty between Japan and England along with the frank words of "Anthony Blinken" after the meeting of the heads of foreign policy of the two countries, who called China and their allies and partners the greatest common strategic challenge ahead, are among other provocations.
Anders Rasmussen, the former Secretary General of NATO, also claimed to be trying to prevent a repeat of the Ukraine scenario, and requested to give weapons to Taiwan as soon as possible and to warn Beijing about the consequences of attacking this island.
The totality of these behaviors, ignoring the security and territorial integrity of other countries, despite the claim of security, may end up in a security fire and bring not only China but the whole of East Asia to the brink of war, so the Beijing's warnings to Tokyo can be evaluated in this regard.
BY: Pooya Mirzaei
NOUNEWS