ASG Tarja Jaakkola held the 2nd NATO-Japan Defence Industrial Cooperation and Capabilities Dialogue co-chaired with Mr Takizawa Go, Deputy Commissioner of ATLA, and Mr Hatada Hiroyuko, Deputy Director-General of METI.
Assistant Secretary General for Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments, Tarja Jaakkola, visited the Republic of Korea and Japan (11-15 May 2026) for discussions to strengthen NATO's defence industrial cooperation.
"We are working with our partners, the Republic of Korea and Japan, to bring them closer to NATO in order to build a stronger defence industrial base," said the Assistant Secretary General. "For a robust deterrence and defence posture, we need a robust defence industrial base across the Alliance that cooperates closely with our partners. We benefit greatly from close defence industrial cooperation with highly capable and world-class defence producers from Korea and Japan."
During her visit, Ms Jaakkola chaired the second NATO-Korea and NATO-Japan Defence Industrial Cooperation and Capabilities Dialogues, where NATO and its partners identified shared interests and discussed opportunities to deepen cooperation. A key priority in NATO's cooperation is to increase the interoperability of defence capabilities through co-development, co-production, joint acquisition and the use of common standards. NATO and its partners exchanged views on further practical cooperation including multilateral projects in the areas of space, supply chain security and collaboration in defence-critical raw materials and innovation.
