Putin claims sanctions mean war

Amid the disorder stoked by Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japan’s influential former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called for a debate over whether his country should get nuclear weapons. That idea has previously been taboo in Japan, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the only country to have suffered atomic war. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has rejected Mr Abe’s suggestion as unacceptable. But the long-serving former prime minister retains enormous influence over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. His proposal that Japan should follow the example of Germany, Italy and Turkey by agreeing to “house” US nuclear weapons on its territory is stirring an important debate.

Promoting discussion on whether Japan should “go nuclear” was not what Mr Putin and Mr Xi had in mind when they met in Beijing last month and issued a 5000-word joint statement declaring “friendship between the two states knows no limits”. They also declared a “new era” in the global order and endorsed their respective territorial ambitions in Ukraine and Taiwan.

Mr Abe’s proposal reflects growing international apprehension about the lawlessness and belligerent disregard for a rules-based world order shown by Mr Putin, Mr Xi and Kim Jong-un’s deranged regime in Pyongyang. The continuing threat of a nuclear-armed, unpredictable North Korea and the growing aggression of China are altering the global strategic landscape. The shift has been given substantial momentum by the Russian onslaught on Ukraine’s sovereignty and its people, including Mr Putin’s action around nuclear power plants in Ukraine and his putting Russia’s nuclear defences on higher alert.

As retired US general and former CIA director David Petraeus says, the Russian tyrant is using a similar tactic to that which he applied ruthlessly in Aleppo to keep Bashar al-Assad in power in Syria and to raze Grozny in Chechnya in the mid-1990s. The aim is to create a wasteland from which people flee their homeland. That is evident in Ukraine, as Mr Putin’s forces flatten apartment blocks for no reason beyond killing innocent residents and putting those who survive to flight. His deployment, reported by The Times, of a special force of 400 paratroopers tasked with finding and killing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky raises the stakes further. Mr Zelensky’s courageous leadership has inspired his people to defend their country and encouraged others to send support.

Mr Zelensky has railed against NATO’s failure to set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but Mr Putin has threatened that such a step would have “colossal and catastrophic consequences”. He has also equated the global sanctions imposed in response to his invasion with a ­“declaration of war”, underlining the potential danger of his extending the conflict beyond Ukraine.

With Mr Xi watching Mr Putin’s assault on Ukraine closely, Mr Abe has called for the US to replace its policy of “strategic ambiguity” towards Taiwan with a firm promise to defend the democratic, self-governing island state against any attempts by China to reunite it by force with the mainland. Mr Putin’s inhumane, destructive invasion of Ukraine is accentuating the concern of Japanese leaders about the prospect of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Mr Abe’s argument that the need for a broader discussion about the defence capabilities needed to meet the challenge of the world’s autocratic regimes, including nations such as Japan “housing’’ US nuclear weapons, is worth considering.