United States, Japan push for Asia-Pacific NATO with Australia and Philippines on board

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United States, Japan push for Asia-Pacific NATO with Australia and Philippines on board

Published: 04 Jun. 2025, 05:00

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Cha Se-hyeon

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

A regional security alliance resembling NATO is beginning to take shape in Asia, led by Japan and the United States, in response to China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. The effort, which some have dubbed an “Asian NATO,” is gaining traction with the addition of Australia and the Philippines — countries increasingly exposed to Beijing’s military pressure.

From left, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Natakani and Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro take a commemorative photo following their multilateral meeting at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 31, 2025. [EPA/YONHAP]

On May 31, the defense ministers of the four nations convened in Singapore during the Shangri-La Dialogue, marking their fourth official meeting in three years. The ministers agreed to align defense investment priorities, enhance intelligence sharing, strengthen cyber resilience and improve operational coordination and interoperability. A joint statement expressed “serious concern over unilateral actions that seek to alter the status quo through coercion,” a clear reference to China.

The four countries have already been conducting regular joint naval and air drills in the South China Sea. They have also increased information sharing and are working together to modernize the Philippine military. While still informal, the alliance is tentatively being called the “Pacific Defense Pact,” and its founding members — Japan, the Philippines, Australia and the United States — already have bilateral security ties with Washington.

To distinguish the grouping from the earlier Quad — comprising the United States, Japan, Australia and India — some diplomatic circles have begun calling the new four-nation framework the “Squad.” The Quad had been a central part of the Joe Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, but the Squad appears more narrowly focused on security and defense, particularly in light of Chinese ambitions regarding Taiwan.

The timeline for this emerging alliance appears aligned with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reported directive to prepare for a potential Taiwan invasion by 2027, a claim made public by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency William Burns in 2023. Like NATO, which has expanded from its original 12 members to 32, the Squad appears intent on growing beyond its core group. Possible future members include New Zealand, a Five Eyes intelligence partner; South Korea, one of Washington’s strongest regional allies; and even India, traditionally nonaligned but increasingly wary of Chinese influence.

On June 1, Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani presented a broader vision in his Shangri-La Dialogue speech: a concept called “Ocean” — One Cooperative Effort Among Nations. The idea, though still vague, aims to unite Indo-Pacific democracies through shared values. Originally, Japan had planned to frame the region from the Korean Peninsula to the East and South China Seas as a single theater of strategic response. But, according to the Asahi Shimbun, concerns about provoking neighboring countries, particularly Korea, prompted Japanese officials to soften the language by adopting the less overtly military term.

The “One Theater” concept is a foundational precondition for a NATO-like collective defense structure in the region. Just as NATO treats Europe as a single strategic theater, proponents argue the Indo-Pacific region must be conceptualized similarly. In April, Nakatani reportedly presented Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh with a detailed A3-sized map showing China’s first and second island chains — its strategic defense lines — and Chinese military activity in the region.

The push for an Asian NATO aligns with a strategic shift under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration, which is pressing allies to shoulder greater security responsibility. In Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth openly voiced Washington’s dissatisfaction. “The U.S. is realigning its strategy to deter Chinese aggression,” he said, adding that it was unreasonable for Asian allies to maintain low defense spending while expecting Europe to invest more.

Hegseth emphasized that rising threats from China and North Korea require increased burden-sharing from allies. The United States has already called on NATO countries to raise their defense budgets to 5 percent of GDP, and similar expectations may soon be placed on Asian partners.

A central component of this emerging strategy is enhancing the “strategic flexibility” of U.S. forces in the region. Former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris recently argued at the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity that North Korea, Taiwan, China and Russia cannot be addressed in isolation. “If war breaks out with North Korea, tens of thousands of troops from across the Indo-Pacific, and even the U.S. mainland, will be deployed. Conversely, any reallocation of U.S. forces in Korea could ultimately strengthen Korea’s defense posture,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, and Singapore Coordinating Minister for Public Services and Minister for Defence Chan Chun Sing shake hands before a Ministerial Roundtable during the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore on May 31. [EPA/YONHAP]

Despite the growing momentum, South Korea remains wary. The Asahi Shimbun recently reported that Seoul has conveyed its objection to being included in Japan’s “One Theater” framework. Korean officials have long expressed concern that such a framework could allow United States Forces Korea to be mobilized in the event of a Taiwan contingency and could also create a rationale for Japanese Self-Defense Forces to intervene on the Korean Peninsula during a crisis.

Nevertheless, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner, now heading the Marathon Initiative, recently argued in Foreign Affairs that South Korea is a “natural candidate” for the Pacific Defense Pact. “Korea must decide whether it is willing to reorient its defense posture more toward China, deepen ties with Japan and support broader operations by South Korean and U.S. forces beyond the Korean Peninsula,” he wrote.

The coming months will reveal whether the initiative to establish a NATO-style defense structure in the Indo-Pacific region will gain further traction — and whether Seoul will join or hold its distance.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.