NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, Ambassador Boris Ruge, visited the Republic of Korea and Japan, from 14 to 16 January 2025.
Ambassador Ruge met with senior officials in Seoul and Tokyo to discuss security issues of common interest, at a time when security in the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions are more interconnected than at any time in recent history, including as a result of China's and North Korea's support to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Ambassador Ruge engaged with members of civil society and academia, at the Chey Institute in Seoul and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo. He also met with the Ambassadors of NATO nations in the two capitals.
As part of the high-level staff talks Ambassador Ruge and his Korean and Japanese counterparts discussed the state of play of NATO's long-standing relations with both countries and explored options for further strengthening the partnerships. The topics addressed ranged from defence industry cooperation, cyber defence, countering hybrid threats, to disinformation and artificial intelligence.
NATO is developing its cooperation with the Republic of Korea and Japan through their respective individually tailored partnership programmes (ITPP) and through flagship projects launched at NATO's Summit in Washington. The four flagship projects are support to Ukraine (military healthcare), cyber defence, countering disinformation, and artificial intelligence, based on cooperation between NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners, i.e. Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea.
Earlier this week, Japan opened a dedicated diplomatic mission to NATO. The newly appointed Ambassador Osamu Izawa was received by Secretary General Mark Rutte, on 15 January 2025.
