ＮＡＴＯ首脳会議に日本参加　米長官、公聴会で明かす

　【ワシントン時事】ブリンケン米国務長官は２６日、上院外交委員会の公聴会に出席し、６月下旬にスペイン・マドリードで開催予定の北大西洋条約機構（ＮＡＴＯ）の首脳会議に日本が参加すると明らかにした。会議にはバイデン大統領も出席する。
　前駐日米大使のハガティ上院議員の質問に答えた。ブリンケン氏はウクライナ危機に対し、「日本が素晴らしい形で立ち向かった」と称賛。また、日本はＮＡＴＯ加盟国ではないものの、協力を深めている友好国だと強調した。（2022/04/27-12:18）

Japan will attend a NATO summit meeting to be held in Madrid in late June, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday.
   He made the remark at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in response to a question from former U.S. Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty, now a senator. The summit will also be attended by U.S. President Joe Biden.
   "Japan has stood up in remarkable ways on the Ukrainian crisis," Blinken said at the hearing, noting that Japan is not a NATO member state but is a friendly country deepening its ties with NATO members.
   NATO is developing its partnerships with four Asia-Pacific countries of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
   Also at the hearing, Blinken reacted positively to a proposal by Hagerty to newly create a task force on energy security under the Quad framework involving Japan, the United States, Australia and India, saying that is a very interesting idea.