Sergey Saenko, international observer

Beijing is firmly opposed to NATO advancing into the Asia-Pacific region (APR) and undermining regional stability, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian recently said at a briefing. The diplomat said, in particular: “We are firmly opposed to NATO moving away from its positioning as a regional defense organization and heading to the Asia-Pacific region to incite conflicts and confrontation, and undermine prosperity and stability in the region.” Lin Jian also advised the alliance to do more in practice for peace, stability, and security around the world.

This statement by the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry was made shortly after the latest summit of the North Atlantic Alliance held in Washington last month, this time a jubilee summit (on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the formation of this military-political bloc), where, among other things, the issue of expanding NATO’s partnership with Asian countries was discussed against the backdrop of the growing confrontation between the West and China. It is noteworthy that the statement by the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry significantly echoes Moscow’s position on this issue. Thus, at the end of July, during a press conference following the Russia-ASEAN meeting in Vientiane, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergey Lavrov, spoke about the risks of expanding the North Atlantic Alliance to the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, he warned that if NATO’s ambitions to increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific region are realized, the alliance will bring with it “all the vices” of the Euro-Atlantic security model. Lavrov also noted that Western countries, by deploying new weapons in the Asia-Pacific region, are escalating the confrontation in this region. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the West is making active attempts to limit the influence of such structures as ASEAN.

At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the strengthening of the US militaristic policy in the Asia-Pacific region, in particular, due to Washington’s agreement with Seoul on cooperation in the field of nuclear planning. “The current West is not ready and does not know how to listen and hear. The West has abandoned diplomacy,” Sergey Lavrov emphasized. It should be emphasized that this is not the first time Beijing and Moscow have been concerned about NATO’s aspirations to the East – this has happened before. However, this time there was a special case for this. After all, the agenda of the North Atlantic Alliance summit in Washington in July included a separate issue on the interaction of the bloc’s member countries with their allies from the Asia-Pacific region. First of all, of course, this meant strengthening NATO ties with Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand (they were called the IP4 group), whose leaders were invited to the summit in Washington. Yes, this is not the first time that the leaders of the IP4 group have been invited to summit meetings of the North Atlantic Alliance, but after the anniversary summit in the American capital, NATO published the first official joint document on expanding cooperation with Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra and Wellington.

It should be noted that if previously the role of the main “instigator” in convincing NATO members that the security of the same Europe is inseparable from security in the Asia-Pacific region was played by the Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida (he placed the main emphasis on the threat from the PRC), then recently the President of South Korea Yun Sok-yol has come to the fore, emphasizing more on the threat from the DPRK, and not China. This was especially evident after the June visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang, during which he agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on deepening, including military cooperation between the two countries. Such cooperation, we emphasize, is entirely justified and understandable, because Russia and the DPRK are neighbors and states of the Asia-Pacific region, and by the will of fate they are destined to worry about their security together. But what kind of threat from North Korea Mr. Yol saw primarily for the European members of NATO is completely incomprehensible and difficult to explain. However, if official Seoul sees the primary risks for regional and global security in the strengthening of the Moscow-Pyongyang link, then Brussels has a much broader view. Thus, as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently stated, the Ukrainian conflict clearly demonstrates how closely Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are connected.

Here, it is perhaps necessary to note that Moscow and Beijing have always been extremely disapproving of NATO’s involvement in the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region, which lies far beyond the alliance’s formal “registration” in the North Atlantic. In particular, the aforementioned Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly criticized the advancement of NATO’s military infrastructure in Asia through the creation of bloc structures such as AUKUS (Australia, Great Britain, and the United States) and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue QUAD (USA, Japan, Australia, India). Similar concerns have been repeatedly expressed by the Chinese side. “The Asia-Pacific region lies beyond the geographical scope of the North Atlantic,” and “NATO’s attempt to penetrate eastward into the Asia-Pacific region will inevitably undermine regional peace and stability,” Liu Pengyu, press secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, recently recalled Beijing’s position. Official Beijing’s concern about NATO’s desire to expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific region is understandable – after all, Washington and Brussels do not particularly hide the fact that the same AUKUS bloc and the QUAD association were created primarily with the aim of limiting, in their opinion, the growing influence of China in this region. And of course, this fact cannot but worry the leadership of the PRC. By the way, recently the DPRK, which has recently become the object of extremely close and negative attention from the alliance, also expressed indignation at the transformation of the alliance of the USA, Japan and South Korea into an “Asian version of NATO”.

Yet, Beijing is most concerned about NATO’s growing penetration into the Asia-Pacific region. Especially after Washington’s increased activity in the region. It is enough to recall the recent tour of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Asia-Pacific region, during which he visited Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Mongolia and Tokyo. It was in the Japanese capital on July 29 that the meeting of the heads of the foreign ministries of the QUAD member countries took place. It is noteworthy that Blinken was accompanied on this trip by the country’s Defense Minister Lloyd Austin. Apparently, both ministers tried to implement the US plans in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, the State Department did not hide the fact that the background for this tour was the ever-increasing tension in relations between Washington and Beijing. Moreover, the overall goal of the trip, which began after President Joe Biden dropped out of the election race, was to convince Asian partners of the immutability of US policy in the region – and therefore, of its anti-Chinese focus. Let’s not forget that the United States recently adopted the Indo-Pacific (as the Asia-Pacific region is now called in Washington) strategy, which, by the way, was immediately criticized in Beijing. “The real goal (of the strategy – editor’s note) is to integrate “small groups” one by one into the big circle of the Asia-Pacific version of NATO in order to maintain hegemony led by the United States,” said Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng, Deputy Chief of the Joint Staff of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China. According to him, Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy contradicts the general desire of the countries in the region for peace, development and cooperation and “serves only the selfish geopolitical interests of the United States and has no future.” It should be understood that the tough statements from Beijing and Moscow indicate that China and Russia are ready to do everything in their power to resist NATO’s expansion to the East, which does not at all promise an easy life for the North Atlantic Alliance in the Asia-Pacific region.