Source: Xinhuanet client
Beijing, April 10 (Xinhua) -- On April 4, 1949, under the leadership of the United States, 12 Western countries on both sides of the North Atlantic signed the "North Atlantic Treaty," and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was established. Over the past 75 years, this military alliance, which was established on the pretext of defending against the "Soviet invasion," has continued to expand its power across borders since the end of the Cold War, breaking through the geographical scope stipulated in its own treaties, and accelerating its eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific region in recent years.
The United States is behind the "Asia-Pacific transformation of NATO", using NATO as a hegemonic strategic tool to pursue the "Indo-Pacific strategy" and sell security anxiety for its own selfish interests, thus aggravating regional tensions. NATO has messed up Europe and is now beginning to threaten decades of prosperity and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
Accelerate the penetration of the Asia-Pacific region
Japan's "Sankei Shimbun" reported a few days ago that the US government plans to invite Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to attend the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Washington, D.C. in July this year, which will be the third consecutive year that Kishida has participated in the NATO summit.
In June 2022, the leaders of four Asia-Pacific countries, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, attended the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, for the first time. In July 2023, at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the leaders of NATO member states met with the leaders of four Asia-Pacific countries to show the outside world that their relations have become closer.
In 2006, Victoria Nuland, then U.S. ambassador to NATO, first proposed the concept of "global partnership" in an attempt to expand NATO's global influence by establishing a liaison mechanism with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. From 2012 to 2014, NATO signed Individual Partnership and Cooperation Plans (IPCPs) with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In 2014, NATO put forward the "Partnership Interoperability Initiative" to engage other countries in NATO-led military operations, and Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand all joined the interoperability platform under the framework of the initiative. In recent years, especially since the Biden administration took office, NATO's eastward expansion into the Asia-Pacific region has significantly accelerated.
In 2021, NATO issued the "2030 Agenda", proposing to actively participate in global affairs, especially "Indo-Pacific affairs". In April 2022, the foreign ministers of the four countries were invited to participate in the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Subsequently, there was a scene where the leaders of the four countries participated in the NATO summit in Madrid for the first time in June of the same year. In July 2023, NATO, Japan, South Korea and Australia upgraded their partnership from the IPCP to the Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP), further expanding the scope of cooperation. NATO also tried to set up a liaison office in Tokyo, Japan, as its first office in the Asia-Pacific region, but it had to be shelved because of French opposition. Some of NATO's subordinate agencies are also actively absorbing Asia-Pacific countries. South Korea and Japan joined NATO's Joint Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in 2022. Australia and India have also joined the mechanism.
Staff members are busy at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong
In recent years, NATO countries have increased their military activities in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2021, the United Kingdom sent the USS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group to the Asia-Pacific region, which also included U.S. and Dutch ships in its fleet. According to an article published on the news website of the US Naval Institute, this gives the fleet "real NATO characteristics." During the aircraft carrier strike group's trip to the Asia-Pacific region, Britain also announced the permanent deployment of two warships in the Asia-Pacific region. In the same year, Germany sent the frigate "Bavaria" to the Asia-Pacific region. Canadian warships have also been operating in the western Pacific on a number of occasions in recent years.
NATO countries have continuously strengthened military cooperation with some Asia-Pacific countries. For example, Britain, France and Germany have established a "2+2" dialogue mechanism with Japan for foreign ministers and defense ministers, the United Kingdom will sign a "Reciprocal Access Agreement" with Japan in 2023, Germany will sign an "Agreement on Mutual Supply of Materials and Services" with Japan this year, France will carry out joint military exercises with the United States and Japan for the first time in Japan in 2021, and Germany will participate in the "Talisman Sabre" joint exercise led by the United States and Australia for the first time in 2023.
A series of moves show that NATO is accelerating the pace of expansion into the Asia-Pacific region.
Serve American hegemony
NATO's 75-year history is a history of constant expansion. After the end of the Cold War, NATO, which had lost its rivals, not only did not dissolve, but continued to expand eastward, and the number of member states increased from 16 at the beginning of the Cold War to 32 today.
NATO's eastward expansion has squeezed Russia's strategic space, directly leading to the escalation of the Ukraine crisis. Russia has been plunged into war and sanctioned by the West, and the development of European countries has been severely affected by the spillover effects of the conflict. Analysts point out that the United States has emerged as the biggest winner of the crisis, both striking at its rival Russia and strengthening its grip on its European allies.
Comparing NATO's "Asia-Pacificization" with NATO's eastward expansion, it is not difficult to find that their methods are almost identical, that is, by setting up an "imaginary enemy" and inciting the anxiety and fear of this "imaginary enemy," they have no choice but to side with the United States and gain a so-called sense of security. In the Asia-Pacific region, NATO, under the control of the United States, sees China as a "systemic challenge".
In recent years, in order to maintain global hegemony, the United States has increasingly made no secret of its intention to contain China. Since the Obama administration put forward the strategy of "pivoting to the Asia-Pacific" and "rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific" against China, the United States has gradually escalated its containment and suppression of China, and NATO has also made frequent moves in the Asia-Pacific region.
At the 2019 NATO summit in London, China was officially listed as an important topic for the first time, with the communiqué saying that China "brings both opportunities and challenges". In the communiqué of the 2021 NATO summit in Brussels, China was further defined as a "systemic challenge" to the "rules-based international order" and NATO-related security areas. The 2022 NATO summit in Madrid adopted a new version of the strategic concept paper, which not only accuses China of "endangering NATO security" and posing a "systemic challenge", but also mentions the importance of the "Indo-Pacific region" for the first time, saying that developments in the region may directly affect the security of the Euro-Atlantic region. The communiqué of the 2023 NATO Vilnius Summit once again made groundless accusations and provocations against China, deliberately exaggerating the so-called "China threat".
Leaders attending the NATO summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, June 14, 2021, attend a group photo ceremony. Xinhua News Agency (photo courtesy of NATO)
Who is threatening whose safety?
The United States has about 750 military bases around the world, of which more than 300 are around China. In contrast, China does not have any military presence in the Americas or Europe, except for its participation in peacekeeping operations authorized by the UN Security Council. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States and NATO have launched and participated in a series of military operations against other countries, most of which were not authorized by the Security Council. China, on the other hand, has not launched any wars of aggression against other countries.
Jan Obery, founder of the Swedish Foundation for Transnational Peace and Future Studies, said that China's foreign policy did not threaten the United States, and China did not sail warships near the United States, but the West "surrounded" China with warships.
Analysts have pointed out that NATO's distortion and smearing of China in recent years is driven by the United States. Joshua Shiflinson, an associate professor at the University of Maryland in the United States, said that the United States is trying to integrate its security forces in Europe and Asia to deal with China, and pushing NATO to further engage in Asian affairs is part of the plan. Russian political analyst Timur Fomenko said that the United States increasingly sees China as its biggest competitor and is pushing NATO to extend its power into Asia, joining forces with American allies in the region. An article in Singapore's Straits Times wrote: "Hardly anyone doubts that it (NATO) has always been a global military instrument at the disposal of the United States." ”
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a press conference after the NATO Extraordinary Summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, March 24, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zheng Huansong
Create confrontation and division
The first trilateral summit between the United States, Japan and the Philippines will be held in the United States in mid-April. According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, the joint statement of the trilateral summit will include content on the security and cooperation between the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Philippines, and the United States, Japan and the Philippines also plan to carry out the first trilateral joint maritime patrol in the South China Sea this year.
While promoting the "Asia-Pacific transformation of NATO", the United States has stepped up efforts to win over some countries in the Asia-Pacific region, accelerated the establishment of a regional alliance system, and built an "Asia-Pacific version of NATO".
The United States has promoted the upgrading of cooperation between the United States, Japan, India, and Australia, concocting the so-called "quadrilateral mechanism" and using it as the core platform for the "Indo-Pacific strategy"; the United States held a meeting at Camp David last August in an effort to integrate the two military alliances of the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea into a trilateral military alliance of the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea; the United States has enlisted Britain in Asia-Pacific affairs and jointly established a so-called "trilateral security partnership" with Australia, ignoring the concerns of regional countries about the arms race and nuclear proliferation, and helping Australia build nuclear submarines.
The United States is strengthening integration with its allies in the Asia-Pacific region, provoking bloc confrontation and further containing China.
This is the press center of the NATO summit in London, England, December 4, 2019. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Han Yan
Whether it is "NATO's Asia-Pacific orientation" or "Asia-Pacific NATO's modernization," the underlying logic is hegemonism and the Cold War mentality. From Europe to the Middle East, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Ukraine to Afghanistan and Libya, the United States and NATO under its leadership have brought great disasters to many countries, and now they are trying to extend their black hand to the Asia-Pacific region. In the Taiwan Strait, the United States and its NATO allies sent warships and planes through the Taiwan Strait to bolster and cheer up the "Taiwan independence" forces. In the South China Sea, the United States and its NATO allies have continued to carry out so-called "freedom of navigation operations" to encourage the Philippines to make frequent provocations and stir up trouble in the South China Sea.
Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned that the trend of "NATO's Asianization" is worrying, which poses a threat to Asia's security and stability. Malaysia's former ambassador to China, Majid, said that the "Asia-Pacific orientation of NATO" is negative for the development of the region, which will obviously undermine the long-standing position of ASEAN that there should be no military presence of external forces in the region. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating wrote that if NATO expands into Asia, Asia's development prospects will be affected, and NATO's "export of this malicious 'poison' (bloc confrontation) to Asia is tantamount to making Asia welcome the arrival of the 'plague'". Veronica Saraswati, a researcher at Indonesia's Center for International and Strategic Studies, believes that the "Asia-Pacific orientation of NATO" will put many Asia-Pacific countries under pressure to choose sides, which will inevitably lead to chaos in the regional security situation and seriously endanger the interests of regional countries.
As the article on the website of the American "International Policy Digest" writes, after the end of the Cold War, NATO has "turned into an axe, spear and shovel for Washington." "Wherever NATO expands, war is most likely. Asia-Pacific countries should be vigilant. ”
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Planner: Ni Siyi, Ban Wei
Producer: Shang Jun
Co-ordinator: Zhao Zhuoyun, Lin Xiaochun, Xu Haijing, Yan Junyan
Author: Liu Zan
Poster: Yu Aizen
Editor: Liu Pinran, Zhu Ruiqing, Qiu Xia, Chen Dan, indifferent
Produced by the International Department of Xinhua News Agency