TOKYO (Reuters) -&nbsp;NATO&nbsp;is planning to&nbsp;open&nbsp;a liaison&nbsp;office&nbsp;in&nbsp;Japan, its first in Asia, to facilitate&nbsp;consultations in the region, the Nikkei Asia&nbsp;reported on Wednesday, citing&nbsp;Japanese and&nbsp;NATO&nbsp;officials.
The liaison&nbsp;office&nbsp;will&nbsp;enable&nbsp;discussions with&nbsp;NATO's security partners, such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, with geopolitical challenges from China and Russia in mind, the media outlet&nbsp;reported.
NATO&nbsp;and&nbsp;Japanese foreign ministry spokespeople were not immediately available for comment. Wednesday is a public holiday in&nbsp;Japan.
The proposed one-person&nbsp;office&nbsp;is due to&nbsp;open&nbsp;next year in Tokyo but details such as whether&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;would provide the space or&nbsp;NATO&nbsp;would fund it were under negotiation, the news outlet said.
NATO&nbsp;has similar liaison&nbsp;offices in New York, Vienna, Ukraine and other places, it said.
NATO&nbsp;chief Jens Stoltenberg visited&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;in January and pledged with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to strengthen ties in the face off "historic" security challenges, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's rising military power.
Japan&nbsp;and&nbsp;NATO&nbsp;are seeking to deepen cooperation on cyber threats, disruptive technologies and disinformation, aiming to sign an individually tailored partnership programme before a&nbsp;NATO&nbsp;summit in July, Nikkei Asia&nbsp;reported.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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