The North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) will reportedly issue a joint document on expanding cooperation with its four Asia-Pacific partners – South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 

Japan’s Nikkei News reported on Friday that NATO will issue its first-ever joint document with the four nations during its summit in Washington D.C., which starts next Tuesday. 

NATO is expected to clarify the framework for cooperation with the four Indo-Pacific nations, dubbing them “IP4,” and specify their cooperative relationship in the document.

To date, NATO has loosely called the four nations the "Asia-Pacific Four” or “AP4.”

This initiative will reportedly lay out a framework for enhanced cooperation, focusing on joint responses to emerging threats such as cybersecurity and disinformation.

Nikkei said that this move is NATO’s efforts to deepen cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries in light of heightened tensions with China.