NATO Expansion Into Asia-Pacific Warned By China

Last updated on August 5th, 2023 at 03:08 pm

The NATO military alliance, which is led by the United States, has been strongly cautioned by China’s ambassador to Russia against expanding into the Asia-Pacific region.

According to an interview Zhang Hanhui gave to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS on Tuesday, NATO’s eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific region will only exacerbate regional tension and the current crisis of confidence.

The envoy continued that the alliance’s moves to the east run the risk of igniting an arms race, undermining regional cooperation, provoking conflict between the camps, and even starting a new Cold War.

Observers have also expressed concern that the US-led alliance was aggressively expanding its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region as a means of besieging China and was no longer restricted to its traditional military missions.

They claim that the US’s efforts to strengthen military ties with its already close Asian allies Japan and North Korea, as well as its overtures towards the semi-autonomous Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei, are the best indicators of the development.

The French President Emmanuel Macron publicly opposed establishing a NATO liaison office in Japan, Zhang noted, pointing out that the alliance’s charter clearly defines its geographical frames as the North Atlantics, with Japan outside of them. Voices of opposition to NATO’s eastward expansion are heard even among NATO members, she added.

A joint communiqué from the alliance’s summit held in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, last month stated that Beijing posed a “systemic challenge” to Euro-Atlantic security twelve times.

Even NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg publicly stated during the summit that addressing the “China threat” would be essential to NATO’s continued existence.