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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks to reporters ahead of NATO foreign ministers’ meetings in Bucharest, Romania, November 25, 2022. In Bucharest, the allies will meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleb to discuss the country’s military needs, he said is Stoltenberg. (NATO)
US and other Western leaders will next week examine ways to reduce the ally’s dependence on China, a move that has taken on added urgency as Moscow’s war against Ukraine has exposed Europe’s over-reliance on Russian energy, a top NATO official said on Friday. .
“The war in Ukraine has shown our dangerous dependence on Russian gas,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels on Friday. “So we have to assess our dependence on other authoritarian regimes, not just China.”
The focus on China during the Nov. 29-30 meeting of foreign ministers in Bucharest comes as Russia’s war against Ukraine enters its 10th month. The consequences of the conflict have spread across Europe in economic terms, and energy prices have soared as the flow of cheap energy from Russia has plummeted.
For Europe, the effect of the war in Ukraine raises questions about the implications if a similar economic disruption were to occur with China, which controls ports in parts of Europe, influences global supply chains and dominates areas such as rare earth minerals.
“We must manage risks, reduce our vulnerability and increase our resilience,” Stoltenberg said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets with General Wei Fenghe, China’s defense minister, on the sidelines of the Southeast Asia Plus defense ministers’ meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Nov. 22, 2022. Next week, NATO foreign ministers will meet in Romania to discuss limiting their economic reliance on China. (Chad McNeely/Department of Defense)
At a NATO summit in Madrid in June, the allies singled out China for the first time in their new strategic concept, saying Beijing’s “ambitions and coercive policies” posed a threat to the international order.
At a meeting of foreign ministers next week in Bucharest, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and other diplomats will try to take the next step: figuring out exactly what can be done to limit exposure to allies.
“China is not an adversary, but it is increasing military modernization.” Increasing its presence from the Arctic to the Western Balkans, from space to cyberspace. And trying to control the critical infrastructure of NATO allies,” Stoltenberg said.
Meanwhile, Stoltenberg reaffirmed NATO’s intention to continue providing military support to Ukraine in the long term, linking the outcome of that conflict and preventing others like it in the future.
In Bucharest, the allies will meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleb to discuss the country’s military needs, Stoltenberg said.
“If we let Putin win, we will all pay a much higher price in the years to come,” Stoltenberg said. “If Putin and other authoritarian leaders see that force is rewarded, they will use force again to achieve their goals.” It would make our world more dangerous. And we are all more vulnerable.”
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