Why NATO will hit China (and Russia)
The new objectives of NATO made explicit by Stoltenberg. The point of Giuseppe Gagliano
The reflections of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the press conference , which followed the meetings of NATO foreign ministers, are undoubtedly of great importance for understanding the lines of force through which the Atlantic Alliance will move and also constitute a sort of introduction to the NATO 2030 report recently published by NATO.
The overall architecture within which the Atlantic geopolitical reflection is located proceeds parallel to that set up by the State Department which we had the opportunity to extensively discuss in a previous article .
Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the main argument around which the foreign ministers and therefore NATO will have to reflect with extreme clarity can only be the changed global balance of power determined above all by China which, although not formally an opponent of NATO and while it can certainly contribute to collaborating in the field of global trade, in the context of arms control and climate change, it nevertheless remains a very formidable competitor for American world hegemony.
In fact, China has the second largest defense budget in the world, does not share Western values and undermines human rights as the Secretary pointed out. But above all it is increasingly engaged in a systemic competition with NATO and the USA. This means that the most correct approach that NATO must implement is to strengthen multilateral cooperation with allies precisely in order to contain the projection of Chinese power in both the South China Sea and the Indo-Pacific.
If during the Cold War the opponent was mainly the USSR, today it is China and therefore once again the commitment of NATO cannot only not fail – as some European analysts had hoped, including Sergio Romano – but on the contrary it must strengthen precisely in order to jointly guarantee and legitimize the American hegemony at the global level threatened by the Dragon.
The challenge posed to Atlantic security by the rise of China is also one of the main reasons why NATO must adopt a more global approach.
But alongside China, Russia also continues to represent an element of danger for the Atlantic Alliance above all because Russia, according to the NATO Secretary General, continues to violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both Georgia and Ukraine and above all consolidates its projection of power in the Black Sea region, in front of which NATO can only strengthen its presence.
It therefore becomes imperative for NATO, as for the United States, to strengthen cooperation also in the military field with Georgia and Ukraine precisely in order to encircle Russia by containing and limiting its expansionist ambitions together. In this context, the Training Center in Georgia is undoubtedly fundamental, where trainers from NATO countries worked together with Georgia officers, soldiers and personnel. Also, earlier this year, NATO stepped up its support by agreeing to strengthen the partnership on issues such as sharing more radar data on air traffic, working together to address hybrid threats, and conducting joint exercises in the Sea region. Black.
However, from a strictly geopolitical point of view, it is significant that the NATO Secretary General has placed the emphasis on the role of NATO allies – such as Romania, Bulgaria and especially Turkey – as partners able to to limit the Russian expansionist logic on the Black Sea.
The reference to Turkey – as a trusted NATO ally – demonstrates once again how NATO needs Turkey precisely to contain Russia. Hence, in our opinion, the indulgence enjoyed by Turkish foreign policy in both Syria and Libya with the United States and NATO.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-la-nato-picchiera-sulla-cina-e-sulla-russia/ on Fri, 04 Dec 2020 06:49:26 +0000.