await new Foreign Minister

Challenges also await new Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, as Ishiba’s positions on foreign policy may require desperate measures to keep Japan’s partners and allies on its side. The most controversial of these positions is undoubtedly the ‘Asian NATO’, which has been summarily dismissed by the US Department of State as well as by Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar as an impractical ‘fantasy’.17 If Ishiba continues to insist on implementing this idea, Japan–India relations in particular would be significantly negatively affected, as would relations with several other key states ufabet