Seoul, South Korea CNN –
The presence of four Asia-Pacific leaders at this week’s NATO summit suggests that Ukraine is not the only major security issue on the European-North American defense alliance’s agenda.
The war in Ukraine has brought members of the US-led alliance closer than at any time since the Cold War, and on Monday NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg summed up their collective concern that what is happening in Ukraine today will be tomorrow could also happen in Asia.
“The Chinese government’s increasing coercive behavior abroad and repressive policies at home threaten NATO’s security, values and interests,” Stoltenberg wrote on the Foreign Affairs website.
Autocratic nations, including China, are scrutinizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine, weighing the costs and benefits of an offensive move, he said.
On Tuesday, the US-led coalition underscored those concerns, making multiple references to China in a harshly worded communiqué released midway through the two-day summit. It said Beijing’s stated ambitions posed “systemic challenges” to “Euro-Atlantic security.”
While the alliance remains “open to constructive engagement” with China, it highlighted the alleged “deepening strategic partnership” between Beijing and Moscow and their “mutually reinforcing attempts to undermine the rules-based international order.”
And in language borrowing heavily from Stoltenberg’s earlier remarks, the leaders’ communique condemned China’s confrontational rhetoric and disinformation.
China is employing “a wide range of political, economic and military tools to expand its global presence and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up,” said the communiqué, calling on Beijing to “to refrain from supporting Russia’s war effort in any way.”
Though neither Stoltenberg nor the joint communique named the island of Taiwan, the self-governing democracy is the most obvious point of comparison with recent events in Europe, as China’s ruling Communist Party remains determined to unite it with the mainland — by force if necessary.
“When I visited Japan and South Korea earlier this year, their leaders were obviously concerned that what is happening in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow,” Stoltenberg said on Monday.
China, for its part, says Taiwan is an internal matter and sees no role in countries in the region, let alone NATO members, interfering.
“We will not allow anyone or any power to interfere in China’s own affairs under the guise of seeking peace,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference in May.
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The Asia-Pacific contingent at the NATO talks includes Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
All four nations have expressed the view that what happened in Ukraine cannot happen in the Pacific.
Kyodo News/Getty Images
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida waves before departing on a government plane for the NATO summit July 11, 2023.
Mirna Galic, senior policy analyst at the US Institute of Peace, said the presence of the four Pacific leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania was “proof of…” [NATO’s] Interest in the Indo-Pacific and focus on the challenges China poses to the Alliance.”
On this point, Stoltenberg appears to be in lockstep with US President Joe Biden, with the two pledging to strengthen NATO’s ties with the Pacific at their White House meeting last month.
And the heads of state and government of the four Pacific states seem to be aiming for a common approach.
Kim Sun-hye, senior secretary to South Korea’s president, said Yoon will chair a side meeting of four Pacific countries to increase shared awareness, solidarity and cooperation on emerging security threats.
Alex Wong/Getty Images/File
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office on June 13, 2023.
There may be moves to increase the involvement of Asia-Pacific leaders in the Alliance, but there is no consensus on what NATO’s role in the Pacific should be.
While Stoltenberg and others would like to see NATO open a liaison office in Japan to facilitate smoother communications with its Pacific partners, French President Emmanuel Macron opposes such a plan and has informed the Secretary-General of Paris’ opposition, so the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
According to reports, France believes that NATO is a North American and European alliance and not a global alliance.
According to the NHK, France can effectively veto any Tokyo office plan because its implementation would require the unanimous approval of the 31 NATO countries.
Supporting the idea of not straying NATO’s focus beyond the “North Atlantic” to which its name refers is Article 5 of the NATO treaty, whose mutual defense clause provides that an armed attack on one Ally is to be treated as an attack on all .
However, the article specifically limits the response to attacks in Europe and North America.
Therefore, military action against US forces stationed in Japan or South Korea or even the US Pacific Territory of Guam does not fall under NATO’s collective self-defense mission.
But outside of NATO, its members have increased their military visibility in the Pacific.
British forces have trained in Japan; a Canadian warship was escorting a US destroyer when the American ship was involved in a near-miss with a Chinese warship in June; and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced at the Shangri-La Dialogue Defense Summit last month that Berlin would send two naval ships to the Pacific next year.
France, despite its opposition to a liaison office in Tokyo, is a frequent military guest in the Pacific and is participating in exercises with the US in the Pacific islands with ten fighter jets even as the NATO summit in Lithuania begins.
And these operations show what Secretary General Stoltenberg said in his editorial.
“NATO is a regional alliance between Europe and North America, but the challenges we face are global in nature,” he wrote, referring to the summit invitations for the leaders of the Pacific region.
“We must have a shared understanding of the security risks we face and work together to build the resilience of our societies, economies and democracies.”