VILNIUS, Lithuania

NATO and Japan on Wednesday underlined the importance of cooperation and global security.

"We highly value the partnership with Japan. No other partner is closer to NATO than Japan," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said while welcoming Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the NATO summit.

"And you (Kishida) have stated many times that what happens in Asia matters for Europe, and what happens in Europe matters for Asia," he said.

This demonstrates that security is “not regional but global,” Stoltenberg said and thanked the prime minister for Japan's “strong support” to Ukraine.

The NATO chief also expressed concern about China's “military build-up, including the modernization and expansion” and condemned North Korea's latest missile test.

Kishida, for his part, said that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific are “inseparable.”

For maintaining and strengthening international order based on the rule of law, Japan and NATO should further deepen their ties, he added.