Ishiba’s “Asian NATO” was dead on arrival when the new prime minister was due to make his diplomatic debut

New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s “Asian NATO” proposal appears to be dead straight away.

The idea, which the former defense chief had thought about for a long time, was met with strong criticism for being both unrealistic and unpalatable to the partners. This also comes as Ishiba will attend his first multilateral forum as prime minister when he travels to Laos for meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this week.

Ishiba himself admitted that the idea probably wouldn’t take off – at least not immediately.