Can flexible coalitions replace traditional alliances? How has Russia’s war against Ukraine reshaped Japanese approaches to collective security? What does the Russia-DPRK alliance mean for Asia?
On February 4, the VI Ukraine-Japan Forum “Restoring the Rules-Based Order: The Role of Ukraine and Japan in Global Security” took place in Kyiv. The event, now in its sixth consecutive year and organized by the New Europe Center, served as a platform to discuss how the war is transforming international alliances and security cooperation.
The forum brought together senior officials and experts from Ukraine and Japan – representatives of ministries, embassies, universities, international institutions, and think tanks.
The forum’s program included three panel discussions: on the confrontation between democracies and dictatorships, on changes in Europe-Asia cooperation since 2022, and on transformations in soft power over the past four years.
Lesia Ogryzko, Director of the Sahaidachnyi Security Center, moderated the second panel – “Ad Hoc Alliances, Ambitious Partnerships: How Cooperation in Europe and Asia Has Changed Since 2022,” which also featured:
- Ken Endo, Professor, University of Tokyo (Japan);
- Yurii Poita, Head of Asia-Pacific Section, Centre for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (Ukraine);
- Dmytro Shulga, Head of the “Europe and the World” Programme, International Renaissance Foundation (Ukraine);
- Nataliya Plaksiyenko-Butyrska, East Asia expert, Associate Senior Analyst, New Europe Center (Ukraine);
- Tsuyoshi Goroku, Associate Professor, Nisegakusha University (Japan).
The discussion focused on:
- The capacity of temporary alliances to work more effectively than established international organizations;
- The impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the evolution of Japanese approaches to collective defense;
- Security implications of Russia-North Korea rapprochement for the Asia-Pacific region;
- China as a shared strategic challenge for Ukraine and Japan.
Opening the panel, Lesia Ogryzko emphasized: Ukraine has become a testing ground not only for technologies, but for the very logic of international cooperation. We are not just a hub for military innovation, but also a space for testing new coalition formats that can be more flexible and faster than traditional alliances. These trends provide insight into how Russia, Europe, and the very idea of the “West” are changing in 2026.
We thank the organizers, speakers, and all forum participants for a substantive discussion on the new architecture of international security and the deepening of Ukraine-Japan partnership.
