WHITE HOUSE – As the warfare on Ukraine rages, Russia stays the most important and most fast menace for NATO. However, as allied leaders meet for his or her summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, subsequent week, a key agenda merchandise might be to implement the Strategic Concept adopted through the Madrid summit in 2022, the place the alliance acknowledged safety challenges emanating from China.
NATO’s strategic idea states that the alliance faces “systemic competition” from Beijing’s “ambitions and coercive policies” that problem members’ “interests, security and values.”
While allies could agree that the China problem is actual, they differ in tips on how to handle it. Many European international locations rely closely on Chinese funding and commerce. China makes up nearly 10% of Europe’s exports and about 20% of its imports.
In Vilnius, these variations will should be hammered out and leaders might want to forge a typical method in coping with the China menace, stated Anca Agachi, affiliate director and resident fellow for Transatlantic Security Initiative within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security on the Atlantic Council.
“The big question that exists right now within the transatlantic community is what is NATO’s role when it comes to China, and how far exactly should the alliance go,” she informed VOA.
Ukraine-Taiwan
NATO leaders have warned that what is going on in Europe immediately can occur in Asia tomorrow.
“If [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin wins in Ukraine, this would send the message that authoritarian regimes can achieve their goals through brute force,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated in Tokyo earlier this 12 months. “This is dangerous. Beijing is watching closely, and learning lessons, which may influence its future decisions.’
Stoltenberg was referring to Beijing’s future decisions on Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing considers its wayward province.
U.S. President Joe Biden has on several occasions said that American forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. That would create a risk of NATO allies and other U.S. partners being drawn into the conflict – a contingency plan the alliance would need to plan for.
Such war is “neither inevitable nor imminent,” Army General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing in March.
Hybrid and cyber operations
Beyond Taiwan and freedom of navigation concerns, NATO is anxious about other potential threats, including what it calls Beijing’s “malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation.”
The alliance views China as seeking to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure such as 5G, and strategic materials and supply chains. It accuses Beijing of using economic leverage to “create strategic dependencies and improve its affect.”
“More typically, Chinese political affect in Europe is, after all, a rising concern,” Agachi added, particularly considering Beijing’s growing partnership with Russia.
Beijing insists that it “stands on the facet of peace” on Ukraine. It has hit back on NATO, including on floated plans to establish a NATO office in Japan.
“Asia lies past the geographical scope of the North Atlantic and has no want for a reproduction of NATO. However, we’ve got seen NATO bent on going east into this area, interfering in regional affairs and inciting bloc confrontation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said last month. “What is NATO actually as much as? This calls for top vigilance amongst international locations on this planet, significantly in Asia.”
Indo-Pacific partners
Indo-Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea attended the NATO summit last year and will again participate in Vilnius.
“These Indo-Pacific international locations, they’ve a singular expertise partaking with the PRC and may convey some priceless perspective to that dialogue,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said in an interview with VOA on Thursday.
NATO has said it remains “open to constructive engagement” with Beijing.