The countries with which NATO seeks to ally to contain the threat from China and Russia

The NATO wants to strengthen relations with countries on the other side of the world in an attempt to reinforce its containment networks against Russia and China.

The 32 member states of the military organization (29 European, Türkiye, the United States and Canada) They want specific collaborations with countries in other regions of the world to be more stable and that they participate in more policies and military maneuvers of the Atlantic Alliance without having to integrate into the bloc.

Therefore, at NATO headquarters In Brussels, plans are being made to strengthen these relations with countries such as Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Austria, all in China's close orbit. Because for the United States, the most influential and decisive in NATO, China is the great rival, not a Russia that relies on Beijing.

In an interview given to the British BBC on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding of NATO, its secretary general, former Norwegian Social Democratic Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, said that “an alliance of authoritarian powers” ​​is “working ever more closely” against Western democracies.

An alliance of authoritarian powers works increasingly closely against Western democracies

Stoltenberg, who is on his way out and will leave office in the coming months, points out that Iran and North Korea increasingly help Russia with military means (mainly ammunition and weapons such as drones) commissioned by China.

And the boss of NATO points directly to the Chinese, whom accuses of “sustaining the Russian war economy, providing it with essential parts for its defense industry and in exchange Moscow mortgages its future to Beijing.” Stoltenberg claims that, in exchange for ammunition, Russia provides Iran and North Korea with cutting-edge military technology.

This information is what has led NATO to consider collaboration with countries in other regions essential, at a time when the world “is much more dangerous, much more unpredictable and much more violent.” And this relationship, the Secretary General believes, must be done “to confront this powerful alliance of authoritarian powers.”

Thus, countries are also rushing to get closer to NATO. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, for example, said last Friday that his country hopes to renew an association agreement with the Organization in the coming months to contribute to security and stability in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.

“New Zealand and NATO are working to renew our long-standing partnership through our Individualized Partnership Programme. We look forward to concluding this partnership in the coming months, agreeing tangible areas of cooperation,” Peters said in a statement.

The foreign minister of the conservative government Christopher Luxon also warned that “the war in Ukraine will have profound repercussions on global security, and that is why “New Zealand must be prepared to do its part.”

Is China increasingly supporting Russia?

This Monday it was also learned that NATO, together with the United States, knows that China is increasingly helping Russia militarily in Ukraine, especially by providing it with “geospatial intelligence information.”

It is the latest military trend, that of combining satellite images, human intelligence information and radio and electromagnetic signals with computer applications to create documents with more complete and coherent information.

According to the Bloomberg agency, China already offers Russia images taken by satellites for military purposes, microelectronics components that Moscow lacks, military optics tools and robotic tools for the manufacture of armored vehicles.

The concerns come just as Ukraine faces a critical artillery shortage and its allies are faltering in their efforts to resupply kyiv.

Russia, for its part, has been able to increase its domestic weapons production, continues to import key components through a network of third countries, and obtains shells and other weaponry from other countries.

And although Beijing has tried to be rather neutral in the face of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its third year, it is also has established a deep alliance with Moscow as part of what Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin They called a friendship “without limits” ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Trade between the two countries reached a record $240 billion in 2023. Russia's neighbor has become a supplier of all types of products, from clothing to machinery and automobiles, following the exodus of Western manufacturers and multiple rounds of sanctions.

At the same time, Russia has boosted exports of raw materials such as coal and oil to China. Besides, China and Hong Kong have become key gateways for Moscow to access restricted technologies, such as chips and integrated circuits, used in weapons or necessary to manufacture them.

The United States has already sanctioned several Chinese companies for helping Russia militarily and the European Union has a new sanctions system that allows it to do so, although it has not launched it.

President Joe Biden already raised his concerns with Xi Jinping during their call last week about China's support to the Russian defense industrial base, which includes machine tools, optics, nitrocellulose, microelectronics and turbojet engines, said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

And Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary, was in China over the weekend. In Guangzhou she said that “companies, especially Chinese, should not provide material support to Russia's war against Ukraine, to the Russian defense industry.” Whoever does so will suffer “serious consequences,” she warned.

How is NATO facing the threats from China and Russia?

The truth is that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is trying to confront the threats from China and Russia just as it turns 75 years since its founding and in a at a time when it is stronger than ever thanks to the war in Ukraine.

The military alliance that emerged in the Cold War to confront the Soviet Union was revitalized with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and It has more troops than ever before on its eastern flank. With the entry of Sweden and Finland, the alliance that in 2019 was “brain dead”, according to the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, now has a record number of 32 member countries.

In this way, the military alliance refocused its objectives by refocusing on Moscow, its original adversary, although today's Russia is far from the now defunct Soviet Union and its allies.

But Russia is not the only threat that looms over NATO. The other great factor of uncertainty is the eventual return of Donald Trump to the White House.

His time as president of the United States caused a storm in NATO, and in his campaign for a new mandate he has already generated a serious crisis with just one sentence.

At the beginning of this year, at a campaign event, Trump assured that if he were re-elected he would encourage Russia to “do whatever it wants” with those NATO countries, and in his campaign for a new mandate he has already generated a serious crisis with just one sentence.

Stoltenberg, who from his position cannot criticize NATO member states, only said that The United States will continue to be an important ally, feels whoever sits in the Oval Office. But the Secretary General does leave indirect messages, such as when he talks about this alliance of authoritarian leaders and how they make the world more violent, more insecure and more unstable.

During the celebration of NATO's 75th anniversary, Secretary General Stoltenberg also sent a message in this regard by stating that the United States and Europe are stronger and safer together in the Atlantic Alliance.

“I don't believe in the United States alone, just as I don't believe in Europe alone. “I believe in the United States and Europe together in NATO because together we are stronger and safer,” Stoltenberg said in a speech at the anniversary celebration ceremony, before the foreign ministers of the 32 allies.

The Norwegian politician stressed that Europe needs the United States for its security and that a fair distribution of the burden is “essential.”

IDAFE MARTÍN PÉREZ – FOR TIME – BRUSSELS