Nato looks at building closer ties with Pacific rim
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is looking at developing closer relations with nations on the Pacific rim – Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea – as the alliance seeks to broaden its world role.
“There is a discussion under way amongst allies on the extent to which we need to in someway formalise these relationships,” said Nato spokesman James Appathurai.
Although he said there was no detailed idea on how Nato saw the relationship deepening, Appathurai said he expected discussion to “get more active” in the run up to an alliance summit planned for November in the Latvian capital, Riga.
Australia and New Zealand are considering joining Nato’s peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan as it expands around the country, and alliance officials believe developing more regular contacts with those countries and Asian democracies such as Japan and South Korea could facilitate joint peacekeeping operations, intelligence sharing and other military and political co-operation.
