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One Western official said that far from distracting the alliance from the threat posed by China, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion had served as an impetus for allies to accelerate their planning.
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“For many years NATO didn’t address China because we focused on the Soviet Union and later on the fight against terrorism,” Stoltenberg said, adding the turning point came in 2019 with the debate in Europe over whether to follow Australia’s lead in banning Huawei from 5G networks, although the Chinese telecommunications vendor continues to hold significant market share in Europe.
“But also allies realised that what happens in Asia, China matters also for our security, so we have come a long way, and it’s great to see the unity and also the way we are able to work with our Asia Pacific partners and Australia being, of course, an important and extremely vital partner for NATO,” he said.
Putin has complained the United States is forming a global NATO through an “axis” involving Australia and other Indo-Pacific countries. Stoltenberg said the strengthened partnerships were a natural consequence of Russia’s own illegal behaviour in invading Ukraine.
“Beijing’s watching closely the war in Ukraine, the price President Putin is paying and the potential rewards he can achieve,” he said.
“This just shows that our security is linked.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the NATO summit in Madrid last year.Credit:AP
“Authoritarian regimes are coming closer and closer as we see China and Russia are. That makes it even more important that countries believe in democracy, freedom, stand together – that’s exactly what we do.”
Asked what NATO’s response would be if China used military force to take over Taiwan, as Xi Jinping has threatened, Stoltenberg said while it would not trigger Article 5 – NATO’s collective defence mechanism – NATO allies would respond.
“Of course it will not call for Article 5, but it will impact and therefore we need to be prepared also to deal with a crisis in and around Taiwan,” he said.
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“Allies, especially the United States are assessing the potential consequences and the potential ways to react.”
He said the priority was deterring and preventing any conflict from starting, but NATO would remain firm if this was not achieved.
“If something happens it is even more important that we stand together and support each other because this will have profound consequences for our economy for trade, of course also, for our security.”