Moscow:
Any deployment of US nuclear weapons in Japan within the framework of an “Asian NATO” would lead to a collapse of regional stability, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
Japan's new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, on the eve of taking office, outlined a plan to revive Tokyo's closest alliance by locking Washington into an “Asian NATO” and stationing Japanese troops on American soil.
The new security alliance, Ishiba said, could even share control of Washington's nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Japan's nuclear-armed neighbors.
“And where will this lead? The correct answer is: the collapse of all stability in an already long-suffering region,” Zakharova said.
“This will become a monstrous catalyst for escalation in the region with unknown consequences, or rather, the consequences are known, but we do not want to express them,” Zakharova said, adding that such a move would undermine Tokyo's subservience to Washington and its states would demonstrate. willingness to blindly implement American policies on Japanese soil.
The proposal is not something Tokyo is moving forward with immediately after India and the United States raised several concerns about it. But Takeshi Iwaya, Japan's foreign minister, has said: “It's an idea for the future.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
