President of France Emmanuel Macron opposes the proposal to establish his own office NATO V Japangiven that the alliance should focus on its own region.

The French official said NATO’s charter strictly defines the geographic scope of the alliance. One person familiar with the discussion said that France does not want to support anything “that contributes to tensions between NATO and China.”

Speaking at a conference last week, Macron said NATO should not expand beyond the North Atlantic, adding: “If…. push NATO to expand its range and geography, we will make a big mistake.”

Macron’s reaction comes two months after he angered the US by suggesting that Europe distance itself from the US-China dispute over Taiwan during a visit to Beijing.

The creation of a NATO office requires the unanimous support of the North Atlantic Council, the supreme political decision-making body of the transatlantic alliance, which means that France has the right to stop this move.

Japan and NATO have been discussing opening an office in Tokyo since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited NATO headquarters in 2007. Tokyo opened a NATO office in Brussels in 2018. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who last year became the first Japanese leader to attend the NATO Summit, will also attend the upcoming meeting in Lithuania in July.

NATO has more than a dozen liaison offices or delegations around the world, in countries such as Ukraine and Moldova. Most of them are small and designed to maintain contact with the government and military forces of the host country.

Source: Financial Times.