Nato leaders slam China for Russia ties and Taiwan threats in sternest rebuke to date

Nato issued its strongest rebuke of China to date on Tuesday, lashing out at its "coercive policies" and "deepening strategic partnership" with Russia.

A joint communique agreed by the military alliance's 31 member states addressed Beijing at length, accusing it of opaquely building up its military power, "amplifying Russia's false narrative" on the war in Ukraine, and using its economic might to "create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence".

Published midway through a leaders' meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, dominated by discussions about Ukraine's future chances of Nato membership, the statement's sections on China ran to 322 words, compared with 304 last year across two statements and 225 in 2021.

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"China is increasingly challenging the rules-based international order, refusing to condemn Russia's war against Ukraine, threatening Taiwan and carrying out substantial military build-up," said Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference on Tuesday, the first of the bloc's two-day gathering.

"China's nuclear modernisation is unprecedented in speed and scale and being carried out with no transparency," Stoltenberg added.

Beijing will surely object to the statement and comments, as it has at previous Nato criticism. China has expressed anger over the presence of four Indo-Pacific countries at the alliance's recent events.

Chinese officials have regularly accused Nato of "fanning the flames" of the war in Ukraine, and echoed Moscow's claims that the bloc's "eastward expansion" is to blame for the conflict.

But the invasion - which Beijing refuses to condemn - has only emboldened Nato, which is now ready to add Sweden as its 32nd member, after Turkey dropped its opposition to its accession on the summit's eve.

It has also added impetus to Nato's cooperation with the "Asia-Pacific 4" comprising Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, each having attended their second successive forum through a series of individual agreements that could open the door to more military interoperability and future joint exercises.

The AP4 have been stout supporters of Ukraine, and each has vowed in Vilnius to continue to provide assistance to Kyiv.

"Australia stands strongly with Ukraine. We regard this as a struggle about the international rule of law," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said before meeting Stoltenberg on Tuesday.

However, plans for a first bricks-and-mortar presence in Asia-Pacific went on life support amid fierce opposition from France, a key Nato member that has a history of opposing any pivot to Asia.

Japan had hoped to announce a Nato liaison office in Tokyo, with its foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, saying in June that it was necessary because the world had "become more unstable" since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

But French President Emmanuel Macron nixed the plan last week, with his aides telling reporters that "Nato stands for North Atlantic".

And on Tuesday, as negotiators thrashed out the final text of a joint statement, all references to the liaison office were scrubbed. Earlier drafts had pledged to continue discussions about a Nato presence in Japan, the very suggestion of which had drawn a furious response from Beijing.

"We want to say that the Asia-Pacific does not welcome group confrontation, does not welcome military confrontation," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning previously said.

Diplomats involved in the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity said the office was sacrificed so that Nato could complete partnership agreements with Japan and South Korea.

These deals are seen as significantly more substantive than a one-person liaison office in Tokyo.

"France wanted it dropped from the communique in order to agree the partnerships elsewhere," said one diplomat, adding that Paris would not agree to have both, "so we went for substance instead".

Macron has spoken against a pivot towards China in previous Nato statements, but signed off on wording that tore into Beijing's relationship with Russia, notably its failure to act constructively to end the war in Ukraine.

"The deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests," it read.

It called on China to "play a constructive role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council", to condemn the invasion, and to "refrain from providing any lethal aid to Russia".

It also called out Beijing's alleged dissemination of false information pertaining to the war, asking China to "cease amplifying Russia's false narrative blaming Ukraine and Nato for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, and to adhere to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter".

That language, combined with the presence of the AP4, would be sure to enrage the Chinese government, analysts said.

"Beijing increasingly perceives Nato as a vehicle for US containment of not only Russia, but also China," said Alicja Bachulska of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"For China, AP4 representatives attending the Vilnius summit translates into more resources and political will for the US to focus on the Indo-Pacific."

The AP4 will meet with all Nato members on Wednesday. They could also meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who landed in Vilnius on Tuesday evening to make Kyiv's case for joining Nato.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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