China is a \u201cdecisive enabler\u201d of Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, NATO leaders said Wednesday, as the defense alliance hardens its stance on Beijing and the \u201csystemic challenges\u201d they say it poses to their countries\u2019 security. <\/p>\n
The joint declaration marks NATO\u2019s most pointed tone yet on China\u2019s role in a war that has galvanized the 75-year-old bloc, which celebrated its anniversary this week at a three-day leaders\u2019 summit in Washington hosted by US President Joe Biden. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s \u201cno limits\u201d partnership with Russia and its \u201clarge-scale support for Russia\u2019s defense industrial base\u201d are enabling Moscow to wage its war, the NATO leaders\u2019 statement said, as they urged Beijing to \u201ccease all material and political support to Russia\u2019s war effort.\u201d <\/p>\n
The US and European leaders in recent months have accused China of bolstering Russia\u2019s defense sector with the export of dual-use goods. Beijing has denied supplying weaponry and maintains it keeps strict controls on such goods. <\/p>\n
The NATO leaders also elaborated to a greater extent than in the past on concerns over China\u2019s growing capabilities and activities in outer space, and reiterated their previous unease about what they called Beijing\u2019s \u201cmalicious cyber and hybrid activities,\u201d including disinformation, and \u201crapidly\u201d expanding nuclear arsenal. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain open to constructive engagement with the PRC, including to build reciprocal transparency with the view of safeguarding the Alliance\u2019s security interests,\u201d the statement said, referring to China by the initials of its official name. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we are boosting our shared awareness, enhancing our resilience and preparedness, and protecting against the PRC\u2019s coercive tactics and efforts to divide the Alliance.\u201d <\/p>\n
The NATO leaders\u2019 declaration Wednesday comes as the 32-member alliance – historically focused on security in North America and Europe – has in recent years upped its engagement with US allies in Asia and increasingly seen its security as linked to the region, even as member countries have pursued divergent policies toward China. <\/p>\n
For the third consecutive year, leaders of New Zealand, Japan and South Korea attended the NATO leaders\u2019 summit in another sign of closer ties between the bloc and those countries, as well as Australia. <\/p>\n
Beijing has deepened political, economic and military ties with Moscow since President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in February 2022 declared a \u201cno limits\u201d partnership \u2013 and their shared opposition to what they said was NATO\u2019s expansion \u2013 during the Russian leader\u2019s visit to the Chinese capital, weeks before his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n
China has surpassed the European Union to become Russia\u2019s top trade partner, offering a crucial lifeline to its economy, which has been heavily sanctioned in the wake of that invasion, while the two nuclear-armed neighbors have continued to hold joint military exercises. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, China has claimed neutrality in the war and sought to posit itself as a potential peace broker, even as the US and European leaders have become increasingly alarmed about what they say is Beijing\u2019s backing of Moscow through its economic and diplomatic support, as well as the provision of dual-use goods. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, China criticized the NATO statement as \u201cfilled with Cold War mentality and belligerent rhetoric,\u201d and said it was \u201cprovocative with obvious lies and smears.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cChina is not the creator to the Ukraine crisis. China\u2019s position on Ukraine is open and aboveboard. We aim to promote peace talks and seek political settlement,\u201d a statement from its mission to the European Union said. <\/p>\n
The Chinese statement also reiterated Beijing\u2019s position that it has never provided lethal weapons in the conflict and has strict dual-use export controls, defending its trade with Russia as \u201cnormal.\u201d <\/p>\n
The US and European leaders have in recent months raised alarm that such exports are revitalizing Russia\u2019s defense sector and allowing it to survive despite hefty international sanctions. The US has said that dual-use exports have specifically enabled the production of tanks, munitions and armored vehicles. <\/p>\n
Both the US and the EU have sanctioned Chinese entities they allege are supporting the war effort. <\/p>\n
The NATO leaders\u2019 declaration is the latest step in what has been the bloc\u2019s gradual hardening of tone on China in recent years. <\/p>\n
NATO leaders first mentioned the need to jointly address \u201copportunities and challenges\u201d posed by China in a 2019 declaration, before moving to refer to \u201csystemic challenges\u201d the country poses in 2021. <\/p>\n
That shift has come alongside an increased US policy focus on the Indo-Pacific amid a deepening rivalry with Beijing as China under Xi\u2019s leadership has grown increasingly aggressive in the region and in its broader foreign policy. <\/p>\n
NATO\u2019s attention on Asia has also been accelerated over the past two and a half years by hardening geopolitical fault lines in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the Kremlin\u2019s tightening relationship with not only China but also North Korea and Iran. <\/p>\n
NATO leaders on Wednesday also said Pyongyang and Tehran were \u201cfueling\u201d Russia\u2019s war through \u201cdirect military support,\u201d and condemned North Korea\u2019s exports of \u201cartillery shells and ballistic missiles\u201d to Russia \u2013 which multiple governments say they have tracked since last year when Putin hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Russian Far East. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Indo-Pacific is important for NATO, given that developments in that region directly affect Euro-Atlantic security,\u201d the leaders said in their declaration. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are strengthening dialogue to tackle cross-regional challenges and are enhancing our practical cooperation, including through flagship projects in the areas of supporting Ukraine, cyber defense, countering disinformation, and technology,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n
Beijing has watched warily as NATO\u2019s engagement grows with other powers in the Asia-Pacific. China is widely seen by observers as hoping to be the dominant force in the region and to push back on the US presence there, as Washington bolsters its longstanding Indo-Pacific security partnerships and interests. <\/p>\n
China and Russia have also converged over their shared opposition to NATO, part of a broader aspiration from both to reshape a world order they see as unfairly dominated by the US, and both have blamed the Western security alliance for provoking Moscow to invade Ukraine. <\/p>\n
In its statement Thursday, Beijing\u2019s EU mission called on NATO to \u201ccorrect its wrong perception of China,\u201d and \u201cabandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Asia-Pacific region is a place for peaceful development, not a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition \u2026 NATO should not become the disrupter of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated with additional information.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China is a \u201cdecisive enabler\u201d of Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, NATO leaders said Wednesday, as the defense alliance hardens its stance on Beijing and the \u201csystemic challenges\u201d they say it poses to their countries\u2019 security. The joint declaration marks NATO\u2019s most pointed tone yet on China\u2019s role in a war that has galvanized the 75-year-old bloc, which <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}