As the Financial Times reports, French president Emmanuel Macron objects to a NATO proposal to open an office in Tokyo–the alliance’s first outpost in the Indo-Pacific region–because he believes the trans-Atlantic security alliance should remain focused on its own north Atlantic region.
One French official told the FT that NATO’s charter requires the alliance to limit its geographic reach to the “north Atlantic.” Another source familiar with the debate inside NATO said that France was reluctant to back anything “that contributes to NATO-China tension.”
