France opposes NATO office in Japan, why?

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has opposed NATO's proposal to open an office in Tokyo because he believes that the security alliance should remain focused on its North Atlantic region. The line of the Elysée is particular, because it comes a short distance from the Vilnius summit of the alliance and because it complicates months of discussions within NATO for the creation of the first outpost of the alliance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Above all, it seems to slow down an orientation on the part of NATO, which for some time now - and explicitly in the new Strategic Concept - has identified the dynamics of the Indo Pacific and the interconnections with the Euro-Atlantic quadrant as part of its strategic interests, and therefore increased the partnerships with countries such as Japan and South Korea (in part also India), and included China among the systemic rivals.

A French official explained to the Financial Times that Paris believes NATO's statute requires the alliance to limit its geographic reach to the "north Atlantic". And he also suggested that the Japanese office could undermine Europe's credibility vis-à-vis China over the war in Ukraine, particularly regarding its request to Beijing not to supply Russia with weapons. Basically, France is reluctant to support anything that contributes to NATO-China tension.

Macron's resistance comes two months after he angered the United States and other allies by suggesting, after returning from a visit to China, that Europe should distance itself from tensions between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan.