Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung have both cancelled their plans to attend a NATO leaders’ summit in The Hague this week following the US military strikes on Iran, reports Al Jazeera.
A spokesperson for South Korea’s presidential office said Lee’s absence would be due to “a confluence of domestic matters and the volatile situation in the Middle East”.
Ishiba’s office cited “various circumstances” as the reason for his last-minute cancellation, but Japan is also in the midst of a series of grim anniversaries marking 80 years since the end of World War II. They include the anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa this week, which killed 200,000 people – many of them civilians – and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August.
Japan and South Korea were two of the four non-NATO countries invited to attend the event, alongside Australia and New Zealand.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week he would also not attend the summit in person.
All three leaders will send deputies in their place.
Bd-pratidin English/TR
