Regional sources familiar with summit preparations say a broad consensus has emerged among allies to invite the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand — the so-called IP4 — to the gathering. Invitations are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, with Italy among the strongest supporters of maintaining and expanding engagement with the group.
The participation of the four partners is no longer remarkable in itself. Since the Madrid summit in 2022, the IP4 have become a regular feature of NATO summits. What is changing is the purpose of the relationship.
Beyond political consultation. The NATO-IP4 partnership is gradually evolving from a largely political dialogue into a framework increasingly focused on resilience, deterrence and technological cooperation.
- That shift was visible during NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Industry, Innovation and Armaments Tarja Jaakkola’s recent visits to Japan and South Korea. Discussions focused not only on defence cooperation but also on interoperability, co-development, joint procurement, supply-chain security, critical raw materials and industrial resilience.
- The agenda reflects a broader transformation. For much of the post-Cold War period, NATO’s partnerships in Asia were primarily linked to crisis management and support for international operations. Today, European and Indo-Pacific partners increasingly share the view that their security environments are interconnected.
One strategic theatre, different geographies. Russia’s war against Ukraine, the deepening relationship between Moscow and Beijing, disruptions around key maritime chokepoints and growing technological competition have reinforced a common perception across both regions: developments in one theatre can have direct consequences in the other.
- This logic helps explain why cooperation is expanding into areas once considered peripheral to NATO’s traditional agenda.
- The focus is no longer limited to political consultations. It increasingly encompasses industrial capacity, technological innovation, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and the resilience of global supply chains.
Looking beyond the IP4. The Alliance’s engagement with the Indo-Pacific is also extending beyond its four established partners.
- On the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, NATO Military Committee Chair Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone met Indian Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh to discuss regional and global security challenges and ways to strengthen strategic dialogue.
- India remains far from any formalised partnership with NATO. Yet growing interactions suggest that New Delhi is becoming part of a wider ecosystem of security relationships connecting the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres.
- That trend is already visible in practical cooperation. In 2024, the Italian carrier strike group centred on ITS Cavour conducted activities with the Indian Navy in the Indian Ocean, reflecting a broader emphasis on interoperability between NATO members and regional partners.
The real meaning of Ankara. The significance of the Ankara summit therefore extends beyond the presence of four Indo-Pacific leaders.
- What is emerging is not a geographical expansion of NATO into Asia — a prospect neither the Alliance nor its regional partners are pursuing. Rather, it is the gradual construction of a network linking the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security environments through industrial cooperation, interoperability, technological innovation and strategic coordination.
The bottom line: The underlying assumption is increasingly shared on both sides: European security and Indo-Pacific security can no longer be treated as separate theatres.
- The challenge for NATO is to translate that assessment into durable structures of cooperation without creating divisions inside the Alliance or fuelling perceptions that it is seeking to replicate its collective-defence model beyond its traditional area of responsibility.
