BRUSSELS – Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi suggested Wednesday that Japan needs to promote discussions on future national security policies, including nuclear deterrence, amid the severe security environment.

“Unless discussions are held without any taboos, no country can any longer ensure its own security on its own,” Koizumi told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. “I think this is only natural.”

“France is changing its nuclear policy (toward expanding its nuclear deterrent to other European countries) and is seeking to demonstrate new developments, including joint exercises with Germany,” he said.

He underlined the need for countries to cooperate in response to the changing security environment.

In a webcast Friday, Koizumi expressed the view that nuclear issues are an unavoidable topic.

Regarding Japan’s three nonnuclear principles of not possessing or making nuclear weapons or allowing them to be brought into the country, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed her intention to discuss a review at a parliamentary meeting on July 6.

The Japan Innovation Party, the coalition partner of Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has also called for a review of the principle of not allowing nuclear arms to be brought into Japan, while seeking to introduce nuclear submarines in its proposal to revise the country’s three security-related documents.

Meanwhile, Koizumi held talks with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday, reaffirming that the security of the Indo-Pacific region and that of the Euro-Atlantic region are inseparable in light of recent firing drills by a Chinese naval vessel within Japan’s exclusive economic zone and a live-fire exercise by a Russian naval ship near the English Channel.