Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has cancelled plans to attend this week’s June 24-25 NATO summit, joining other Asia-Pacific countries in saying that their leaders will not attend, and raising questions about future regional cooperation, Reuters has reported. “Japan’s Foreign Ministry announced the scrapping of Ishiba’s June 24-26 trip just three days after announcing that he would attend the meeting in The Hague to ‘reaffirm with NATO allies and others the recognition that the security of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific is inseparable.’”
South Korea and Australia, which along with Japan and New Zealand are key U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region and comprise the IP4, have also said their leaders would not attend. Trump had wanted to hold a summit with the IP4, a source had previously told Reuters.
