Because NATO will shift attention to China. Report Ft
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg reveals a significant expansion of the alliance's goals to include Beijing. The in-depth analysis of the Financial Times
Countering the security threat stemming from the rise of China will be an important part of NATO's future logic, the alliance leader said, marking a significant rethinking of the Western group's goals that reflect the US's geostrategic pivot in Asia. The Financial Times writes.
In an interview with the Financial Times, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that while China is not an "adversary", it is having an impact on European security through its cyber capabilities, new technologies and long-range missiles. How to defend NATO allies from these threats will be "carefully" addressed in the new alliance doctrine for the next decade, he said.
The military alliance has spent decades focusing on countering Russia and, since 2001, terrorism. The new focus on China comes amid a decisive shift in the US geopolitical orientation from Europe towards a hegemonic conflict with Beijing.
“NATO is an alliance between North America and Europe. But this region faces global challenges: terrorism, cyber but also the rise of China. So when it comes to strengthening our collective defense, it's also about how to deal with the rise of China, ”Stoltenberg said. “What we can predict is that China's rise will impact our security. It has already done so ”.
NATO will adopt its new strategic concept at a summit next summer, which will outline the purpose of the alliance for the next 10 years. The current version, adopted in 2010, does not mention China.
NATO is seeking a new direction following the end of its 20-year deployment in Afghanistan, while discussions are underway on the future of the US military presence in Europe.
Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister who will step down next year after nearly eight years at the helm, said NATO allies will seek to "scale down" activities outside their borders and "increase" their ability to internal defense to better resist external threats.
China is getting closer to us. . . We see them in the Arctic. We see them in cyber space. We see them investing heavily in our countries' critical infrastructure.
“And of course they have more and more high-range weapons that can reach all NATO allied countries. They are building many, many long-range ICBM silos, ”he said.
China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, the FT reported over the weekend, demonstrating advanced long-range weapons capability that surprised US intelligence and underscored the rapid military progress that Beijing has done on the next generation weapons.
But any suggestion of a shift away from the deterrence of Russian aggression would meet protests from Eastern European member states that see Moscow as an existential threat and the alliance as their sole guarantor of security.
Stoltenberg added that Russia and China should not be seen as separate threats. "First of all, China and Russia work closely together," he said. "Secondly, when we invest more in technology … this affects both of us."
“This idea of distinguishing so much between China, Russia, Asia-Pacific or Europe – it's one big security environment and we have to tackle it all together. What we do on readiness, on technology, on cyber, on resilience is important for all these threats. You don't put a label on it, ”he added.
Stoltenberg said the hasty withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan in August was "an obvious choice" following the US decision to leave the country. He said that while the European military could have remained without US support, political leaders could not justify a continued presence.
“It was partly a military aspect: the capabilities. But I think fundamentally more important was the political aspect: we went to Afghanistan after an attack on the United States, ”he said. “Militarily it would have been possible [to stay]. But politically, I consider it absolutely unrealistic… this was the main reason ”.
(Extract from the Epr press review)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/nato-cina/ on Sun, 24 Oct 2021 06:26:12 +0000.