Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Tokyo on January 31, 2023. (Photo/Reuters)

1月31日，日本首相岸田文雄在东京会见北约秘书长斯托尔滕贝格。（图/路透社）

By Wen Weiru

文威入

According to Japanese media reports, NATO had planned to open a permanent NATO liaison office in Tokyo in 2024, which will be the first liaison site of NATO in Asia. This move highlights that the traditional Western military alliance has expanded beyond conventional defense and penetrated into the Asia-Pacific region substantially.

据日本媒体报道，北约计划于2024年在东京设立一个常设联络机构“北约驻日本联络办公室”。这将是北约在亚洲设立的第一个联络机构，此举凸显出这个传统意义上的西方军事联盟已经突破常规防御范围，实质性地将触角伸向亚太地区。

Relevant reports mentioned that the liaison office plan was mutually agreed upon by both sides during Stoltenberg's visit to Japan in January 2023. The two leaders pledged to strengthen ties between NATO and Japan at the meeting, and the liaison office was a key part of the efforts. This office will be responsible for facilitating regular consultations between NATO and its regional partners including Japan, ROK, Australia and New Zealand. NATO and Japan are currently negotiating over staffing allocation, workplace, operation funding and other issues. It is speculated by the Japanese media that the funds of the office will be borne by Japan, with a small crew size at the initial stage.

有关报道称，该联络办公室的设立计划，是由北约秘书长斯托尔滕贝格于今年1月访日期间与日本首相岸田文雄共同敲定的。当时，两人承诺将加强北约与日本的关系，设立联络办公室便是双方加强关系的一项关键举措。该联络办公室将负责为北约与日本、韩国、澳大利亚、新西兰等地区伙伴国进行定期磋商提供便利。目前，北约与日本正就人员规模、办公场所和运营资金来源等问题进行协商。日本媒体推测，该联络机构的运营资金将由日本承担，初期人员数量很少。

NATO has a long tradition of establishing liaison offices in hotspot regions. In addition to Ukraine, similar institutions can also be found in Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Kuwait and other countries. The plan to open a liaison office in Japan signifies that NATO has identified the Asia-Pacific region as a hotspot for future military confrontation. This is also a substantive representation of NATO to enhance its relations with Japan and reflects that driven by the US, the interaction between NATO and Japan has gradually changed from superficial to practical and from shallow to deep, toward a tendency of institutionalized and normalized development. In the future, NATO may further extend its tentacle of interest to the Asia-Pacific and regularly intervene in the affairs of this region.

北约一向有在热点地区设立“联络办公室”的传统，除乌克兰外，格鲁吉亚、波黑、摩尔多瓦、科威特等国也设有类似机构。北约计划在日本设立联络机构，意味着其已将亚太地区视为未来军事对抗的热点地区。此举也是北约展示加强对日关系的一种实质性表达，体现了在美国推动下，北约与日本的互动关系逐渐由虚向实、由浅入深，呈现出机制化、常态化发展趋势。未来，北约可能进一步将其利益触角延伸至亚太地区，并常态化介入亚太事务。

Analysts pointed out that NATO, Japan and the US are all intending to take the opening of a NATO liaison office in Japan as an opportunity to pursue their own strategic interest.

分析人士指出，北约、日本和美国均试图以北约在日本设立联络机构为契机，谋求各自的战略利益。

NATO hopes to gain an initial "anchor" in the Asia-Pacific region. With the implementation of the liaison office, it can elevate the defense cooperation with Japan by a large margin, and attain a heightened sense of participation in the coordination with US global strategic adjustment as well as the great power competition and geopolitical confrontation in the Asia-Pacific. Although geographically distributed alongside the Atlantic Ocean, NATO member states have continuously intervened in the situation of the Western Pacific transregionally in recent years by relying on its regional partners including Australia, Japan, ROK and New Zealand.

北约希望在亚太地区获得初始“锚地”。联络机构建成后，北约可大幅提升与日本的防务合作，在配合美国的全球战略调整以及亚太地区大国竞争和地缘对抗中获得更多参与感。北约成员国虽然从地理位置上分布在大西洋两岸，但近年来不断以澳大利亚、日本、韩国和新西兰等地区伙伴国为依托，跨地域介入西太平洋局势。

Japan hopes to enhance its regional influence with the aid of NATO. In order to acquire recognition for its military development plans uninhibited by post-war order from the Western countries, Japan has taken several approaches to bring NATO forces into the Asia-Pacific region, including agreeing with the UK and other NATO member states on the exchange of military personnel and equipment and conducting joint military exercises with NATO countries including the UK, Germany and France. In 2022, Japan also joined the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) and attended the NATO summit meetings as an extraterritorial country.

日本希望借助北约提升地区影响力。为得到西方国家对其突破战后秩序的军事发展计划的认可，日本已采取多种方式将北约力量引入亚太地区，包括与英国等北约国家达成军事人员及装备互派协议，与英、德、法等北约国家举行联合军演等。2022年，日本还加入北约合作网络防御卓越中心，并作为域外国家参加北约首脑峰会。

The US hopes to spur new military alliances by taking this opportunity. Since the acceleration of the Asia-Pacific strategic layout adjustment, it has been attempting to introduce and copy the NATO military alliance mechanism to the Asia-Pacific region, so as to relieve its own strategic pressure by harnessing the power of new military alliance. Aside from facilitating Japan-ROK reconciliation and forming US-Japan-ROK trilateral military alliance, it had also successively built the AUKUS with the US, UK and Australia at its core, along with the QUAD dominated by the US, Japan, India and Australia, and still plans to build an Asian version of NATO.

美国希望借此推动建立新的军事联盟。自加速调整亚太战略布局以来，美国一直试图将北约军事联盟机制引入并复制到亚太地区，通过组建新的军事联盟，来缓解自身面临的战略压力。除近期主导日韩和解，构建美日韩三方军事同盟外，美国此前还陆续构建了以美、英、澳为核心的“奥库斯联盟”，以美、日、印、澳为核心的“四方安全对话”，并计划打造“亚太版北约”。

NATO's persistent efforts on breaking through traditional defense zones and areas to seek reinforced military and security ties with Asia-Pacific countries are indeed deliberately provoking disputes and differences, advertising bloc confrontation and creating tensions in this region. Such actions will evoke vigilance and countermeasures from those regional countries that adhere to peace and development ideology.

北约不断突破传统防区和领域，谋求加强与亚太国家军事安全联系，是在刻意挑动矛盾分歧、鼓吹阵营对抗、制造地区紧张局势。这种做法将引起坚持和平与发展理念的亚太国家的警惕和反制。