Russia and China oppose NATO; the alliance invites Finland and Sweden to join
MADRID – NATO met with reprimands from Moscow and Beijing on Thursday after declaring Russia a “direct threat” and saying China posed “serious challenges” to global stability.
The Western military alliance ended a summit in Madrid, where it issued a stern warning that the world has been thrown into a dangerous phase of great power competition and countless threats, from cyber attacks to climate change.
NATO leaders also formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, after overcoming opposition from Turkey. If the accession of the Nordic nations is approved by the 30 member nations, it will give NATO a new 800 km (1,300 kilometers) border with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that he would respond in kind if the Nordic couple allowed NATO troops and military infrastructure on their territory. He said Russia needed to “create the same threat to the territory from which it threatens us.”
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Putin’s threat was “nothing new”.
“Obviously we have to expect some kind of surprise from Putin, but I doubt he will attack Sweden or Finland directly,” Kallas said as she arrived at the summit’s conference center. “We will definitely see cyber attacks. We will see hybrid attacks, information wars are going on. But not the conventional war.”
China accused the alliance of “maliciously attacking and tarnishing” the country. Its mission to the European Union said NATO “claims that other countries pose challenges, but it is NATO that is creating problems around the world.”
NATO leaders turned south for a final summit on Thursday, focusing on the Sahel region of Africa and the Middle East, where political instability – exacerbated by climate change and food insecurity triggered by the war in Ukraine – is driving large numbers of migrants to Europe.
“It is in our interest to continue working with our close partners in the South to fight shared challenges together,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
But it was Russia that dominated the summit. Stoltenberg said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine had led to “the biggest overhaul of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.”
The invasion shattered Europe’s peace, and in response, NATO has poured troops and weapons into Eastern Europe on a scale not seen for decades. Member States have provided billions in military and civilian assistance to Ukraine to strengthen its resistance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who spoke at the summit via video link, asked for more. He urged NATO to send modern artillery systems and other weapons and warned leaders that they either had to give Kyiv the help it needed or “face a delayed war between Russia and yourself.”
“The question is who’s next? Moldova? Or the Baltics? Or Poland? The answer is: everyone,” he said.
At the summit, NATO leaders agreed to dramatically scale up the military force along the alliance’s eastern flank, with countries from Romania to the Baltic states worried about Russia’s future plans.
They announced plans to increase almost eight times the size of the alliance’s rapid reaction force, from 40,000 to 300,000 soldiers, by next year. The troops will be based in their home countries but dedicated to specific countries in the east, where the alliance plans to build up stocks of equipment and ammunition.
US President Joe Biden, whose country accounts for the bulk of NATO’s firepower, announced a major boost in the US military presence in Europe, including a permanent US base in Poland, two more naval fighters based in Rota, Spain, and two more F35 squadrons in the UK
The expansion will retain 100,000 soldiers in Europe for the foreseeable future, up from 80,000 before the war in Ukraine began.
Biden said Putin had believed that NATO members would split after he invaded Ukraine, but the Russian leader received the opposite answer.
“You will get the NATOization of Europe,” Biden said. “And that is exactly what he did not want, but exactly what needs to be done to ensure the security of Europe.”
Nevertheless, tensions among NATO allies have arisen as the costs of energy and other essential commodities have skyrocketed, in part due to the war and harsh Western sanctions against Russia. There are also tensions over how the war will end and what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make.
Money is still a sensitive issue – only nine of NATO’s 30 members currently meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of its gross domestic product on defense.
Britain, one of the nine, announced a further 1 billion pounds ($ 1.21 billion) in military aid to Ukraine on Thursday.
At what Stoltenberg called a “transformative” summit, leaders published NATO’s new strategic concepts, its set of priorities and goals once a decade.
The latest document, 2010, called Russia a “strategic partner”. NATO is now accusing Russia of using “coercion, subversion, aggression and annexation” to extend its reach.
The 2010 document did not mention China, but the new one addressed Beijing’s growing economic and military reach.
“China is not our opponent, but we must be clear about the serious challenges it represents,” Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
NATO said China “strives to undermine the rule-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains”, and warned of its close ties with Moscow.
However, the alliance said it remained “open to constructive engagement” with Beijing.
China denied that NATO was a source of instability and promised to defend its interests.
“Because NATO positions China as a ‘systemic challenge’, we must pay close attention and respond in a coordinated manner. When it comes to actions that undermine China’s interests, we will provide firm and strong responses,” it said in a statement.