Source: Reuters

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday abruptly canceled his trip to a NATO leaders’ summit this week, a day before his scheduled departure from Tokyo, following U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites Saturday.

Citing “various circumstances,” the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo announced Ishiba’s withdrawal but said Japan’s top diplomat, Takeshi Iwaya, would attend the summit at The Hague in his place.

Asked Monday during an annual memorial service in Okinawa Prefecture if the trip was still happening, Ishiba hinted that his decision would hinge on the participation of other regional countries.

Japan is not a member of NATO, but was invited to join the summit along with other so-called IP4 countries — South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — with deep security ties to the alliance.

Already, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and new South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have decided to skip the gathering.

The government had previously confirmed Ishiba’s attendance at the NATO summit from Tuesday to Thursday.

The sudden change in plan came after Tokyo reportedly scrapped annual “two-plus-two” security talks between the two countries’ foreign affairs and defense chiefs after the U.S. asked Japan last week to hike its defense budget even further.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, at a news conference Monday morning, dismissed the report and said the schedule for the next two-plus-two meeting has not been decided.

U.S. demands for increased defense spending among its allies and partners are expected to loom large over the NATO summit.

The Pentagon said in a statement to The Japan Times last Friday that Japan should be subject to its “global standard” for its allies to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense, though other media reports said Washington was asking Tokyo to commit to 3.5% of GDP.

“The government’s stance remains unchanged: What matters is not the amount of money, but the substance of our defense capabilities,” Hayashi said, while declining to comment further on the Pentagon’s remarks.

Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in April that the country was zeroing in on hitting its target of 2% of GDP, with the figure hitting 1.8% this year.

Hayashi also repeatedly dodged questions on whether Japan supports the U.S. military’s intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict, reiterating only that Tokyo calls for the deescalation of tensions as soon as possible. Japan had previously condemned Israel’s surprise attack on Iran.

The abrupt cancellation also means that a possible meeting between the prime minister and U.S. President Donald Trump will no longer happen. Observers had anticipated the two would engage in more discussions on unilateral tariffs the U.S. has imposed on Japan since March.

A previous meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit last week in Canada failed to deliver an agreement on tariffs or a breakthrough of any kind, despite repeated suggestions that progress was being made in recent trade negotiations.

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